We Want This Trend To Be Inclusive.

Every minority group shares oppression and discrimination. 

Art imitates life. 

Life imitates art. 

While we want this trend to be inclusive, we also want one major thing to be kept in mind. 

This account started because OITNB killed Poussey Washington. They said they killed Poussey to teach white people a lesson about police brutality. We chose the imagery in our poster to underline the specific pain and fears that Black and Black LGBT people experience everyday of their life. 

As a Black LGBT account, this trend will have tweets about police brutality, experiences with the police, experiences that are unique to us, what Poussey meant to us and why representation matters to us. Please keep this in mind as you tweet and support those who tweet about their experience. 

2 questions (just to clarify so I know the protocol to follow for this): 

1. So if we have white skin but are members of one or more minority groups (eg. I’m part Native Brazilian, an immigrant, and Latina but pasty due to my German side) do we fall under a minority group supposed to post about discrimination or are we supposed to just boost?

2. If we’re an ally who’s witnessed discrimination and/or heard from our minority friends about instances of discrimination should we/could we post about that? Or post stats related to discrimination or something like that?

1. Yes. Any POC and/or LGBT+ member falls under minorities who have more than likely experienced their own form of discrimination.

2. As an ally, people are welcome to post about experiences they have learned from their friends who are minorities. As long as they don’t talk over other minorities, they are welcome to post statistics and post about injustices they have seen done to their friends. They should just keep in mind not to talk over minorities and to try to boost and support tweets from minorities. 

3. This trend is meant to share experiences. To talk about the issues and instances that have bothered and/or stuck with you. To learn about other people’s struggles. To learn why media representation is important to each individual. To tag OITNB and other media sites with your concerns. To get into why you in your own experiences might feel its everybody but us. And most importantly to walk away hopefully having learned more about each other.

To learn why media representation is important to each individual.

Over 70 years ago, Langston Hughes, a renowned Harlem Renaissance poet that put his pain and his dreams to pen and paper, wrote these chilling words. This quote detailed the struggle within Black Communities that sought democracy and freedom in a country that claimed to freely offer both. 

OITNB wanted to teach a lesson about police brutality. Trouble is we don’t need a television show with no Black writers to tell our reality. We live it. We know. We see the effects of police brutality every time another black life is wrongly taken. 

OITNB storyline failed and caused a huge amount of pain. The storyline wasn’t meant for us. Poussey’s death was meant for them. A writer’s room that lacks any empathy of a Black LGBT person’s deepest fears and pain. They were careless. They were ignorant. More importantly, they told a story about our pain with everybody but us in the room.

Here’s a list of what we need in TV:

Roles that don’t dehumanize black bodies

Roles that don’t play treat black bodies as fodder for white people’s pain.

Roles that don’t shove black people into the corner as desexualized sidekicks.

Roles that treat black women fairly. That don't make fun of their hair, their features, and celebrates their femininity.

Roles that allow black children to be children, and encourages them to express their feelings (all of them).

Roles that showcases black queers in nuanced lights, and loving relationships.

Roles for black men that don’t amount to them being pushed around/used/beaten by white women.

Roles for black people that don’t make their entire storylines about racism and nothing afterwards.

Roles where we don’t see a black person being graphically brutalized in such a way that it amounts to torture porn 

Roles where black love interests for the black lead are canon and aren’t thrown aside for a white person.

Over 70 years ago, Langston Hughes, a renowned Harlem Renaissance poet that put his pain and his dreams to pen and paper, wrote these chilling words. This quote detailed the struggle within Black Communities that sought democracy and freedom in a country that claimed to freely offer both. 

OITNB wanted to teach a lesson about police brutality. Trouble is we don’t need a television show with no Black writers to tell our reality. We live it. We know. We see the effects of police brutality every time another black life is wrongly taken. 

OITNB storyline failed and caused a huge amount of pain. The storyline wasn’t meant for us. Poussey’s death was meant for them. A writer’s room that lacks any empathy of a Black LGBT person’s deepest fears and pain. They were careless. They were ignorant. More importantly, they told a story about our pain with everybody but us in the room.

Here’s a list of what we need in TV:

To not assume a white audience is the default audience.

To not assume a white audience is the default queer audience (aka not all queers are white)

Over 70 years ago, Langston Hughes, a renowned Harlem Renaissance poet that put his pain and his dreams to pen and paper, wrote these chilling words. This quote detailed the struggle within Black Communities that sought democracy and freedom in a country that claimed to freely offer both. 

OITNB wanted to teach a lesson about police brutality. Trouble is we don’t need a television show with no Black writers to tell our reality. We live it. We know. We see the effects of police brutality every time another black life is wrongly taken. 

OITNB storyline failed and caused a huge amount of pain. The storyline wasn’t meant for us. Poussey’s death was meant for them. A writer’s room that lacks any empathy of a Black LGBT person’s deepest fears and pain. They were careless. They were ignorant. More importantly, they told a story about our pain with everybody but us in the room.

Here’s a list of what we need in TV:

Roles that don’t dehumanize black bodies

Roles that don’t play treat black bodies as fodder for white people’s pain.

Roles that don’t shove black people into the corner as desexualized sidekicks.

Roles that treat black women fairly. That don't make fun of their hair, their features, and celebrates their femininity.

Roles that allow black children to be children, and encourages them to express their feelings (all of them).

Roles that showcases black queers in nuanced lights, and loving relationships.

We Want This Trend To Be Inclusive.

Every minority group shares oppression and discrimination. 

Art imitates life. 

Life imitates art. 

While we want this trend to be inclusive, we also want one major thing to be kept in mind. 

This account started because OITNB killed Poussey Washington. They said they killed Poussey to teach white people a lesson about police brutality. We chose the imagery in our poster to underline the specific pain and fears that Black and Black LGBT people experience everyday of their life. 

As a Black LGBT account, this trend will have tweets about police brutality, experiences with the police, experiences that are unique to us, what Poussey meant to us and why representation matters to us. Please keep this in mind as you tweet and support those who tweet about their experience. 

2 questions (just to clarify so I know the protocol to follow for this): 

1. So if we have white skin but are members of one or more minority groups (eg. I’m part Native Brazilian, an immigrant, and Latina but pasty due to my German side) do we fall under a minority group supposed to post about discrimination or are we supposed to just boost?

2. If we’re an ally who’s witnessed discrimination and/or heard from our minority friends about instances of discrimination should we/could we post about that? Or post stats related to discrimination or something like that?

1. Yes. Any POC and/or LGBT+ member falls under minorities who have more than likely experienced their own form of discrimination.

2. As an ally, people are welcome to post about experiences they have learned from their friends who are minorities. As long as they don’t talk over other minorities, they are welcome to post statistics and post about injustices they have seen done to their friends. They should just keep in mind not to talk over minorities and to try to boost and support tweets from minorities. 

3. This trend is meant to share experiences. To talk about the issues and instances that have bothered and/or stuck with you. To learn about other people’s struggles. To learn why media representation is important to each individual. To tag OITNB and other media sites with your concerns. To get into why you in your own experiences might feel its everybody but us. And most importantly to walk away hopefully having learned more about each other.

We Want This Trend To Be Inclusive.

Every minority group shares oppression and discrimination. 

Art imitates life. 

Life imitates art. 

While we want this trend to be inclusive, we also want one major thing to be kept in mind. 

This account started because OITNB killed Poussey Washington. They said they killed Poussey to teach white people a lesson about police brutality. We chose the imagery in our poster to underline the specific pain and fears that Black and Black LGBT people experience everyday of their life. 

As a Black LGBT account, this trend will have tweets about police brutality, experiences with the police, experiences that are unique to us, what Poussey meant to us and why representation matters to us. Please keep this in mind as you tweet and support those who tweet about their experience. 

@lgbtfans @lgbtfansdb @rachberry @theghostgetsaround @centauri2002 @monkeyclassics @justbtruetowhoyouare

Argentina 19pm-20pm

Trend for Monday July 11th 

Argentina ART 7pm - 9pm

Poussey Washington and THE MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Warning… if you have not finished this season then DO NOT read this. 

Poussey was wrongfully killed off on OITNB and there is a lot of contraversy on whether or not her character should have been killed off anyway. After all she is a woc who is queer see represented on mainstream media. She was such a wonderful character. A strong rolemodel to show people that stereotypes are ridiculous and never judge someone by the color of their skin. She was educated and intelligent. She was worldly. She spoke 3 languages. Poussey had a bright future ahead of her and… I feel like this is too real. 

But let’s talk about who killed her. I’ve seen some people blame Suzanne for adding weight to Baxter’s back while he was on top of her. I’ve seen someone defend his position of restraint and say it was not his fault at all. Comments sections are rather interesting when it comes to this debate because it represents so much of what real arguments are, when this actually happens. 

Baxter did not INTEND to kill Poussey. He was devastated when he realized what he did, understandably. His actions do not make him evil. He really was poorly trained and had no idea what he was doing. However, the concern everyone showed for him, all the CO’s and even Caputo was sickening. No one seemed to care about the woman who lost her life, lying on the cafeteria floor while her parents had no idea she was even dead. No higher ups cared that a human lost a life. They didn’t care that other people in the prison would be affected by this loss. Instead OITNB itself sympathized more with Baxter it seemed. OR…not? I don’t know. 

Caputo did wrong by defending  Baxter and not talking about Poussey at all. He didn’t say her name. He didn’t treat her loss as if it mattered. He put all his energy into defending Baxter’s actions. Baxter at that point did NOT need defending. He is a white male, he will be FINE. At that point he needed to acknowledge the major fuck up and the fact that a beautiful soul was lost among them… He needed to make sure Taystee and everyone else close to Poussey felt acknowledged and had the proper help. He needed to get Poussey off that damn floor and treat her like a person instead of a liability. 

I think the purpose of the show was too focus on how society treats different races. White people like myself don’t really get shit on or in trouble, we get the benefit of the doubt because our skin is lighter and our stereotypes are gentler. But someone who is a person of color is not even looked at beyond the color of their skin. 

Poussey was a young black inmate. Baxter was a white CO. He didn’t get arrested for having weed or climbing a tower. But Poussey gets thrown in jail for it. Poussey gets forgotten while people want to make sure Baxter is okay. People want to make sure Baxter isn’t traumatized. People are ignoring Poussey completely. Poussey is a good person but no one will remember her…not the higher ups. 

Race does that in the United States and elsewhere. 

It makes me think of a story. Just 2 week ago my best friend and I went to Six Flags. We had a great time and she brought me back to my house. She was 12 miles over the speed limit. She got pulled over. She had no information on her, no insurance, no registration, just her license. The officer asked us about our day, congratulated us on graduating college, and sent us on our way sans ticket. He decided to send us off with a friendly warning. Even though not having that information and the amount she was speeding is bad. She should have gotten a ticket. The thing is, we are both white. I am not saying that his decision had anything to do with our skin color.. But I know someone who got pulled over for doing 5 miles over the speed limit and got their car impounded, this was a person of color. So…yeah. 

White privilege is a thing. It is real and prominent. 

This was clear in the show. In the way they chose to kill off one of the few queer woc on the show, and do it ruthlessly without much thought. A death was a shock value and a way to move the plot forward. It makes me tired. It makes me sad. It makes me angry.

I am boycotting the show. I won’t be watching it next season. I don’t support the decision they made. 

I understand what they were aiming for but I think it was done the wrong way. 

I don’t know if I am right. I don’t know if I am wrong. But I know that her death felt like losing a real person and combined with the Orlando shootings, I am depressed and pissed off. Fight. Poussey deserved better.