From Volume 3, #8, June 14, 1969 of the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service.

worldsweburntogether:

nerdydyke:

letsgo-to-neverland:

I’m a lesbian so i must have a crush on every girl i see.
I have alot of guy friends so i must be fucking every single one of them.
I smile alot, so i must have the perfect life.
I listen to reggae, so I must be a stoner.
My opinion matters, so I must be a bitch.
I’m comfortable with my body, so I get around?
I’m friends with a lot of guys, so I’ve must have hooked up with all of them.
I like to help out, so I must be a suck up.
I’m black, so I must be ghetto.
I’m black, so I must be stupid.
I’m Mexican, so I must be low class.
I’m bisexual, so I must get around.
I’m straight up blunt, so I must be a bitch.
I like to drink, so I must be an alcoholic.
I don’t hang out with guys, so I must be a lesbian.
I cut myself so I must be emo.
I’m bisexual, so none of my girl friends can feel safe.
I laugh and smile, so I cannot be depressed.
I like spending my day at home, so I don’t have any friends
I am gay, so i must be bullied
Most of my friends are dudes, so I must be a tomboy.
I’m on Tumblr, so I must have zero friends in real life
I’m a Muslim, so I must be a terrorist
I make alot of mistakes so I must be stupid/retarded.
I strongly defend LGBT so I must be gay.
I’m from a broken family, so I must be a rebel.
I like rasta colors, so I must smoke weed.
I’ve had sex, so I must be a slut.
I’ve made mistakes, so I must be untrustworthy.
I really love him, so I must hold on.
I’m a Filipino, so I must be a maid.
I really love him, so I must be taken for granted.
I’m a Politician, so I must be corrupt.
I’m Blonde, so I must be really stupid.
I’m wearing a black shirt, so I must be emo.
I wear make up, so I must be a flirt.
I make alot of mistakes, so I must be hated.
I am a teenager, so I must be misunderstood.

I’m male, so I must be sexist.

I’m male, so I must want sex all the time.

I’m female, so I must be emotional.

I’m trans*, so I must want to get surgery.

I’m short, so I must be weak.

I’m a rape survivor, so I must have deserved it.

I support men’s rights, so I must be a douchebag.

I support women’s rights, so I must hate men.

I’m a small guy, so I must be useless.

I’m male, so I must be a rapist.

I’m male, so I must be violent.

I’m male, so I can’t get raped.

I’m male, so I’m automatically leading the good life.

I’m male, so my voice doesn’t deserve to be heard.

I’m male, so I should be financially bound to fatherhood.

I’m male, so it’s okay if I am forced to go to war.

I’m male, so it’s okay if divorce courts are bias against me.

I’m male, so it’s okay if I serve more time than women for the same crimes.

I’m male, so it’s okay that the educational system is sexist against me.

I’m male, so it’s okay to mutilate my genitals without my consent.

I’m male, so it’s okay that as a child I am charged child support for the baby born from an adult woman who raped me.

I’m male, so nobody cares if I am 8 times more likely than a female to commit suicide.

I’m male, so it’s okay if I am more than 8 times more likely than a female to be homeless.

I’m male, so it doesn’t matter if ‘affirmative action’ is legal, federal sexism against me.

I’m male, so it’s perfectly alright when I’m objectified, but not when a woman is.

I’m male, and I should expect to be hit by a woman, but not to hit back.

I’m male, and because I am male, I have no right to be unhappy.

I’m male, and that’s why it’s alright that the huge list of the first post and the associated pictures completely forgot I exist.

I am a human individual in the modern world, so I am important despite my short-comings, my flaws, and my dis/advantages, but am still stigmatized and generalized.

I am a human individual in the modern world, so I have been born with advantages, which have no exclusivity to my race/gender/orientation/abilities, over some other people in one way or another.

I am a human individual in the modern world, so there is probably someone out there who hates me because of certain irrelevant characteristics that I was born with.

I am a human individual in the modern world, so sometimes bad things happen to me.

I am a human individual in the modern world, so things are unfairly assumed and expected of me by society.

I am a human individual in the modern world, so I tend to unjustly focus specifically on issues that are applicable to my personal characteristics and forget about others’.

Keep yourselves in check, people; we’re all different and have had different experiences. All of our suffering is equally important and we are all equally victims of a flawed, unjust system that marginalizes and segregates us.

My skin color does not disqualify me from being able to sincerely care about, successfully empathize with, or genuinely oppose racism, oppression, and prejudice.

Thanks for slowing down progress, you racist fucking scumbag.

- I am choosing to no longer “see” race and ethnicity in my personal life and decisions, but am still going to acknowledge and fight against racism.

- I am choosing to no longer “see” gender in my personal life and decisions, but am still going to acknowledge and fight against sexism.

- I am choosing to no longer “see” orientation and sexuality in my personal life and decisions, but am still going to acknowledge and fight against homophobia, heterophobia, transphobia, and slut-shaming.

Just because we still live in a society and institution that segregates us by arbitrary labels and dinstinctions does not mean that we must continue to do the same in our everyday lives, communities, and cultures. It is the choice to perpetuate the significance of these otherwise meaningless things that maintains the prejudice and bigotry based on them.

As an individual who both acknowledges prejudice and oppression and no longer wants to play a role in it, I am choosing to see everyone as human. Our different upbringings, histories, ancestries, experiences, and lifestyles say nothing about our cores or what we are capable of as individuals. To suggest that our skin colors, anatomies, or sexual preferences are indicative of anything is the very foundation of ignorance-based discrimination. No one’s suffering is more important than another’s.

For anything to change, we must learn how to unite and join hands as one species who are all in this fight together. The differences in our personal struggles is irrelevant, because we are all ultimately enslaved by capitalism, government, and plutocracy.

Jesse Washington, a teenage African American farmhand, was lynched in Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916, in what became a well-known example of such attacks. He was accused of raping and murdering his employer’s wife in rural Robinson, Texas. There were no eyewitnesses to the attack, but he was seen near the house around the time of her death. He was quickly arrested and interrogated by the McLennan County Sheriff, and eventually confessed.

Washington was tried for murder in Waco, in a courtroom filled with furious locals. He entered a guilty plea and was quickly sentenced to death. After his sentence was pronounced, he was dragged out of the court by observers and lynched in front of Waco’s city hall. Over 10,000 spectators, including city officials and police, gathered to watch the attack. There was a celebratory atmosphere at the event, and many children attended during their lunch hour. Members of the mob castrated Washington, cut off his fingers, and hung him over a bonfire. He was repeatedly lowered and raised over the fire to delay his death. After the fire was extinguished, his charred torso was dragged through the town and parts of his body were sold as souvenirs. A professional photographer took pictures as the event unfolded, providing rare photographs of a lynching in progress. The pictures were printed and sold as postcards in Waco.

Although the lynching was supported by many Waco residents, it was condemned by newspapers around the United States. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hired Elisabeth Freeman to investigate; she conducted a detailed probe in Waco, despite the reluctance of many residents to speak about the event. After receiving Freeman’s report on the lynching, NAACP co-founder and editor W. E. B. Du Bois published an in-depth report featuring photographs of Washington’s charred body in The Crisis, and the NAACP featured his death in their anti-lynching campaign. Although Waco had been regarded as a modern, progressive city, the lynching demonstrated that it still tolerated racial violence. The city subsequently gained a reputation for racism, but city leaders prevented violence on several occasions in subsequent decades. Historians have noted that Washington’s death helped alter the way that lynching was viewed; the publicity it received curbed public support for the practice, which became viewed as barbarism rather than an acceptable form of justice. In the 1990s and 2000s, some Waco residents lobbied for a monument to the lynching, an idea that has failed to garner wide support in the city.

“Aversive Racism and Police Violence” by Kirk Anderson.

It’s astounding that the only common denominator your ignorant, racist ass could notice amidst your extremely vague and limited knowledge of history and the horrible things that have been done by human beings throughout history is skin color. You’re no better than the “white people” you’ve characterized.

I’m so glad your idiocy is restricted to anonymous comments to people smarter than you on the Internet.

Grace said it better than I could have.

I Love My Boo campaign features real young men of color loving each other passionately. Rather than sexualizing gay relationships, this campaign models caring, and highlights the importance of us taking care of each other. Featured throughout New York City, I Love My Boo directly challenges homophobia and encourages all who come across it to critically rethink our notion of love.

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