knowledge equals black power

zuky: damn-itsmalina: Ray Charles - Hit The Road Jack...

zuky:

damn-itsmalina:

Ray Charles - Hit The Road Jack (Original)

I used to listen to this song when I was a kid on a reel-to-reel tape player. One of my childhood faves.

girljanitor: medievalpoc: At a young age, Gustav Badin...

girljanitor:

medievalpoc:

At a young age, Gustav Badin (1750-1822, named Couschi at birth), was kidnapped, taken to Sweden and presented to Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia in 1757. Intrigued by the teachings of Rousseau, Louisa set out to teach Gustav how to read and write, and about Christianity and etiquette, as an experiment to see if a "morian" (Swedish for Moor) could be "civil." Then he was allowed to make all his own choices, unlike her other children. He later pursued poetry, theatre and dance, and based on his extensive library of mostly French books, was well versed in the French language. Upon the death of Queen Louisa, it was Gustav whom she trusted with her personal files, perhaps to the dismay of her son. In his latter years, he married twice, owned two farms, and was an esteemed member of the Freemasons as well as the Swedish secret societies of Par Bricole, Svea Orden, and Timmermansorden.

[x]

If anyone has any more information about this painting, or a higher quality image,it would be greatly appreciated!

user taijavigilia provided the following information:

Re: the pastel drawing of Adolf Ludvig Gustav Albert Couschi (also known as Badin) was made by Gustaf Lundberg in 1775. The original piece is in Gripsholm Castle's National Portrait Gallery and part of Swedish National Museum's collection but there's no better resolution picture anywhere on the internet that I could find whatever spelling or version of Badin's name I used (yet.. like most museums they are in process of digitising everything).

"If all the white people who claim they don't hate us would ever get together and do something to the..."

""If all the white people who claim they don't hate us would ever get together and do something to the whites who claim they hate us, we'd see some action. Talk is cheap, if white people didn't want to have a South African situation … there'd be none. If white people in America didn't want segregation, there'd be none … it is the man who allows him to lynch who is never seen.""

-

Malcolm X

Taken from Hakim Jamal's book "From the Dead Level: Malcolm X and Me" (page 180)

Tattooed applicant goes right off Air NZ

Tattooed applicant goes right off Air NZ:

malisteen:

wolfpangs:

thousandyearsbunny:

Claire Nathan, the woman who was barred by Air New Zealand from working as an air hostess because of a ta moko on her forearm, says she no longer wants to work for the airline.

Air NZ refused to hire her because of her traditional ta moko. Yet they use the Maori symbol for its company logo. 

And that, in a nutshell, is what it's like to be indigenous.

So this image is acceptable to take out of its natural context to use as their trademarked company logo, literally claiming ownership of it, devoid of any of the cultural or symbolic meaning that made it significant.  But it's not acceptable to be worn in its original context by members of the culture from which it originated.  One couldn't ask for a more stark example of cultural appropriation.

I'm going to save this away to pull out whenever someone asks (or whenever I need to remind my own privileged ass) what cultural appropriation is or why it's condescending, demeaning, and just in general a bad thing.

Senate Report: Bush Used Iraq Intel He Knew Was False

liberalsarecool:

More than five years after the initial invasion of Iraq, the Senate Intelligence Committee has finally gone on the record: the Bush administration misused, and in some cases disregarded, intelligence which led the nation into war. The two final sections of a long-delayed and much anticipated "Phase II" report on the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence, released on Thursday morning, accuse senior White House officials of repeatedly misrepresenting the threat posed by Iraq.

This is what a scandal looks like.

auntada: thesmithian: Slavery in America often conjures...

auntada:

thesmithian:

Slavery in America often conjures images of antebellum plantations with sprawling fields worked by weary black folks picking cotton or tobacco under the hot sun and the watchful eye of a whip-yielding white overseer. This…is the picture of slavery most often presented to us in books, on television and in the movies. But the history of slavery in Florida challenges that cliche and reveals that black people were a diverse lot.

more.

fascinating

browngirlinorange: Me. 24/7 in this mess…

browngirlinorange:

Me. 24/7 in this mess…

cartoonpolitics: The Supreme court has ruled that it's A-OK for...

cartoonpolitics:

The Supreme court has ruled that it's A-OK for US police to collect without warrant DNA samples from people they arrest. (story here)

Great quote:

sunshineuncertaintyprinciple:

matthewiswiser:

Before Roe V Wade, a woman had 2 choices, have sex and risk getting pregnant or not have sex period. Since then so many advances in birth control have made it much easier to avoid getting pregnant, the fact that we are still aborting over 300,000 babies a year may be due more to a lack of personal responsibility than to a true necessity. Choice doesn't begin at conception.

Before Roe v. Wade gave all women* the right to have abortions safely and legally, women* faced with unplanned pregnancies still had three choices: adoption, parenting, and illegal abortion.

Statistics about illegal activity are always difficult to gather, but our best analyses of data indicate that up to 1.2 million abortions occurred annually in the 1950s and 60s. That means that the same number of abortions are occurring now as they were in the decade before Roe.

Roe didn't end some magical fairytale period wherein women* universally chose between abstinence and motherhood. Roe ended a horrific chapter of our history wherein women* were forced to risk injury, infection, and death in order to make choices about their bodies. In 1965, illegal abortion accounted for 17% of deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth, and that only counts the deaths that were reported; the actual number was likely much higher. Thousands of others were admitted to hospitals for septic and incomplete abortions at rates as high as 1 septic abortion admission per 14 births. 

People today seek abortion for the same reasons they sought abortion pre-Roe: they cannot afford a(nother) child (61% of abortions are for people who already have at least one child, and 69% of abortions are for people below 200% of the federal poverty line-, $21,000 for a single person). 

And the people having abortions today understand the necessity of contraception- more than half of U.S. abortions are for people who were using some form of contraception when they got pregnant.

People who support reproductive freedom and choice do not only advocate for abortion rights- we advocate for the right to use (and have health insurance cover) birth control. We advocate for the right to comprehensive sexual education. We advocate for the right to social services so that low-income parents can care for their children.

We know that choice begins far, far before a pregnancy begins, but we also understand that choice does not end at "conception."

lachatrouge: Right as Rain by: Steve McCurry Monsoon season in...

lachatrouge:

Right as Rain

by: Steve McCurry

Monsoon season in India

'We Are Movement, Not a Moment': North Carolina Peaceful Uprising Continues

'We Are Movement, Not a Moment': North Carolina Peaceful Uprising Continues

black-culture: 140 YEARS OF BLACK GAY MALE COUPLES IN...

black-culture:

140 YEARS OF BLACK GAY MALE COUPLES IN PHOTOS

 

 

anarcho-queer: freedomofwhat: anarcho-queer: Revealed: U.S....

anarcho-queer:

freedomofwhat:

anarcho-queer:

Revealed: U.S. Government Collecting Phone Records of Millions of Verizon Users Daily

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over the proper extent of the government's domestic spying powers.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself.

"We decline comment," said Ed McFadden, a Washington-based Verizon spokesman.

The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compels Verizon to produce to the NSA electronic copies of "all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls".

It is not known whether Verizon is the only cell-phone provider to be targeted with  such an order, although previous reporting has suggested the NSA has collected cell records from all major mobile networks. It is also unclear from the leaked document whether the three-month order was a one-off, or the latest in a series of similar orders.

The news comes just days after Obama suggested he will push for increased electronic surveillance.

Glad I'm on ATT for now, but damn. This is the kind of stuff that makes me mad. 

AT&T is just as bad if not worse. They willfully give your info to the government without warrants.

In 2007 it was revealed that the FBI paid multimillion-dollar contracts to AT&T and Verizon requiring the companies to station employees inside the FBI and to give these employees access to the telecom databases so they could immediately service FBI requests for telephone records.

Photo

Photo

fuckyeahnickiminaj: Complex Magazine released "The 25 Best Rap...

fuckyeahnickiminaj:

Complex Magazine released "The 25 Best Rap Verses of the Last 5 Years," naming Nicki Minaj's verse in Monster  #1.

"It was clear, she did her thing alongside the best in the game—she stole the show, in fact, outshined them all."

vintageblack2: The first mainstream black model, Helen...

vintageblack2:

The first mainstream black model, Helen Williams.

ikenbot: heirofmedusa: White people continue to suck. this...

ikenbot:

heirofmedusa:

White people continue to suck.

this is what people mean when they say poc generalizations have far worst implications to our existence than generalizations made on whites. see this shit? they can get away with that and people will find it funny or harmless that these white dudes are all portraying blackface and enforcing the narrative of the "thug black guy" as a caricature and not a human. which is why I will forever give a scarce amount of fucks for white people's feelings when discussing racism or engaging in antiracist content that makes fun of idiots like these.

Why are they so obsessed with trying to be us?

ereyes312: Cowboys of Color. (via PurinaMillsTV) National...

ereyes312:

Cowboys of Color. (via PurinaMillsTV)

National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame. (formerly the National Cowboys of Color Museum)

22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From Each Other

22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From Each Other:

team-joebama:

lord-kitschener:

gedenkenbrauchtwissen:

emiloveyouu:

OH MY GOD NUMBER 19 WHAT

that is so weird.

also I say everything wrong for my region apparently :\ uh.

makes sense because people ask me if I have an accent all the time.

also it's partially from my speech impediment.

also I have told people I am from all sorts of countries just to fuck with them, and they all believe that's where my accent is from.

"Where were you born?" "Kosovo." "OH, that's it!  That's where it's from!" Bitch, I was born 20 miles from here.

so I don't know what the fuck is up with my voice.

jesus people do the same thing to me. I had a speech impediment growing up, and learned to overpronounce the fuck out of everything when I talk to compensate

I've started answering at work with "my mother's family is from Denmark" (true, though my mother was born/raised here), because I got sick of people actually arguing with me when I say that I was born and raised in St. Louis

MD and TX are the only places who know how to pronounce Bowie when you're not referring to David

This just made me feel so Southern.