I was actually just reading about this in Caste: The Origins of our Discontent. The author talks about how one’s body goes into stress or anxiety or defense mode when the person knows they’re being followed, watched, or otherwise scrutinized. She brought race into it. A Nigerian man, who was just a person in his country, was healthy as anything. He got to the U.S. and within a year, his doctor told him he was suddenly pre-diabetic and had high blood pressure. He never had those things in his country. He learned that being Black in the U.S. is a very different experience than being Black in a Black-centric country. The author elaborated more about those in poverty, women, and being a minority in general. Having that “fight or flight” triggered in the body, sometimes for hours or days or weeks at a time, degrades the body’s natural defenses, making them more vulnerable to disease.

being poor can cut about 15-30 years from your life

recover from ‘burnout’ in five steps

1. reward yourself for working so hard. take a long bath with your favourite bath bomb, take time to cook your favourite meal, paint your nails. recognise that you worked hard and it was tough and that you deserve time for yourself

2. catch up on sleep. nothing makes studying harder than being exhausted. clear your schedule and have a lie in. even if you don’t sleep late, stay in bed and enjoy a guilt-free lazy morning

3. do something fun. invite your friends over for a movie night, take your dog for a walk. remind yourself that there is more to life than textbooks and notes

4. make a plan. start getting ready to get back into study mode. make a todo list, a study schedule, and a list of your deadlines

5. organise your space. declutter your desk so you have a clean space to be productive in. tidy desk, tidy mind

start again.

no way in hell am i passing this up

a student from uni scrolled past this and ended up failing all of his courses, even the ones he thought he passed… not gonna take this chance.

moodboard

Life the past 2.5 years

Bryson Tiller x H.E.R.

Daniel Caesar & H.E.R performing, “Best Part” for the FIRST time together in Toronto.

This is one of my favorite love songs and it will definitely be played at my wedding.

photos by david baker from dorset and the outer hebrides

I might have to reblog this on a regular basis. Just so everyone is aware.

academic wish list 2k16

1. reparations for black people whose ancestors built our universities

2. the ability to disengage with classmates who use colonial ass rhetoric to dismiss WOC scholars.

3. syllabi that include more than one token POC

4. less “roundtables” on racism, more concrete action

5. less white “allies” tweeting out their support, more *actually* showing up to anti-racist events

6. a moratorium on white classmates asking to “pick my brain” before class

7. a  suspension of all “professionalization” programs that are actually just code for “whitening”

8. more PAID speaking invitations to POC academics and non-academics instead of book award winners who made their fame by exploiting people

9. more resources for students of color that address the ways racial trauma impedes our work while our white colleagues remain unbothered.

10. more self-care, less fucks given

✍🏾 barbara sostaita

UM EXCUSE ME THOS E ARE FUCKING PIXELS HOW

I pray that you grow up loving your brown skin. so rich. so smooth. incomparable. a shade of delight. God painted you so beautiful. 

Free PDF Books on race, gender, sexuality, class, and culture

Found from various places online:

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Angela Y. Davis - Are Prisons Obsolete?

Angela Y. Davis - Race, Women, and Class

The Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (link updated 1/14)

Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf

Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (link updated 1/14) 

The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America- Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki (link updated 1/14) 

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism - bell hooks (link updated 1/14) 

Feminism is for Everybody - bell hooks (link updated 1/14) 

Faces at the Bottom of the Well - Derrick Bell

I am Your Sister - Audre Lorde (link updated 1/14)

Black Feminist Thought-Patricia Hill Collins (updated 1/14) 

Gender Trouble - Judith Butler

Four books by Frantz Fanon

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

Medical Apartheid - Harriet Washington

Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory  - edited by Michael Warner

Colonialism/Postcolonialism - Ania Loomba (updated 1/14)

Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault

The Gloria Anzaldua Reader

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

This Bridge Called by Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga & Gloria Anzaldúa

What is Cultural Studies? - John Storey (updated 1/14)

Cultural Theory and Popular Culture - John Storey (updated 1/14)

The Disability Studies Reader (updated 1/14)

Michel Foucault - Interviews and Other Writings

Michel Foucault - The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3

Michel Foucault - The Archeology of Knowledge

  This blog also has a lot more.

(Sorry they aren’t organized very well.)

New Podcast: Now Comes the Hard Part of Actually Doing It

Lisa and Lynn recorded this podcast last Monday, before Election Day.  Thus, this episode has been edited and our spirits are definitely different than they are right now.  We will be back when we are ready to process the current state of things.  In the meantime, we are thinking of all of you.

We talk about what we’ve been up to, and answer a reader’s question.  Download the episode on iTunes (where we would also appreciate a rating/review). 

Show Notes:

On social media - we are @dumplingskin on Instagram/Twitter and Facebook.  Lisa is @rrrrlisarrr on Instagram/Twitter and Lynn is @mslynnchen on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook.

SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE WHITE

SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE WHITE by Beau Sia

you’re not responsible for the other white people.

i see you sharing

black lives matter! dope post!

i see you marching

on instagram! dope post!

i see you donating

to THE cause. dope post!

your cousin in mountain view,

your best friend from college,

your aunt on your dad’s side.

NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!

what his fascination with asian bodies got to do with you???

what her view on black men in the club got to do with you???

what auntie say about towelheads got to do with you???

you got bills, career instability, failed romance, a painful relationship with your father, global fear, comparison judgment, and the new season of favorite tv show on your plate,

what more can be asked of you?

you already have a puerto rican friend,

you already teach kids who’s future assignment is prison,

you already passed 2010’s ally exam.

i get it. there’s just not enough time for anything more.

besides,

it’s not your responsibility.

and anyway, we know how hard you try.

we’re all trying so hard, i know.

we are all frauds & failures & fucking wack

in the eyes of those who condemn us

to the color of our skin.

we let ourselves be agents of hate,

as if the power of our silence at thanksgiving,

in the boardroom,

amongst shared ethnic background,

will evolve from within

what silence has yet to evolve

in anything.

II.

i thought i could click like my way to evolution.

i thought revolution was proven on the internet.

i thought my face excused me from others’ struggle.

i thought example would magically transform all i touched.

i thought writing the poem was the most i needed to do.

i thought all the world’s problems separated by borders.

i thought responsibility was only what i did for myself.

you are not responsible for

the other asian people.

the aunt who still clutches her purse to acknowledge black.

the best friend from college whose best friends are now all white.

the cousin fucking his hate into the poorest nations on earth.

you are not responsible for

the other asian people.

you can talk your way out of any wrongdoing.

you can make believers out of anyone.

you can present like corporate long game.

you are only responsible

for who you are.

III.

you’re not a coward.

you been living

in a reward system

that erases

us all.

when we gonna challenge the roles we been assigned?

when we gonna challenge the comfort of our peers?

when we gonna challenge the traditions of our past?

when we gonna challenge the way our daily ignores color?

when we gonna challenge the narratives of war?

when we gonna challenge the truth of ongoing slavery?

when we gonna challenge the fear of facing our own hate?

when we gonna challenge the people against humanity?

when we gonna challenge the 8 men who rule over everyone?

when we gonna challenge the how that keeps failing truth?

when we gonna challenge the world made by our choices?

don’t worry,

making buzzfeed rich

is probably enough.

don’t worry,

becoming my friend

is probably enough.

don’t worry,

sharing this

is probably enough.

i mean,

what else can you do?

you’re not responsible

for the other white people.

you’re only responsible

for who you are.

and who knows

where you at

in understanding

that truth.

and who knows

whether this is something

you listen to

or become

defensive about.

and who knows

their responsibility

waking

into the reality

we’ve lived

the shared lie

that

we only have

as much power as

the masters give us.

you’re not responsible

for the other white people.

keep saying it

until all the mirrors die.

until there’s nothing left

of us.

This poem by Beau Sia has been removed by Facebook twice for “not meeting"community standards.“  We don’t believe Beau should be censored, and encourage you to share.

“Learn why people of color hate it when you cry. When you cry, you are shifting the focus off of the policies, events, and people who target, harm, and murder people of color– and putting the focus on you and your emotional reaction. It is at best self-centered, and at worst complicit in racism. This ain’t about you. You are not in danger. You may be uncomfortable that we have a shitty president-elect. But those two things are not same same, y’all hear me?  Being uncomfortable versus being afraid for your life or your family’s lives are two different, not equal, things. So take a moment–privately, or with your white friends (don’t make your friends of color responsible for your grief). Have your grief. I get it. But then, please stop crying. Go do your homework and learn how to be part of a resistance movement that respects people of color as human beings.” - Liza Featherstone