Lilkcsunshine - LilKCsunshine - Tumblr Blog

Omfg. It makes so much sense. ..

this is the only explanation i’ll accept from you dragon ball GT

Take a look at this picture. Do you know who it is?

Most people haven’t heard of him.

But you should have. When you see his face or hear his name you should get as sick in your stomach as when you read about Mussolini or Hitler or see one of their pictures. You see, he killed over 10 million people in the Congo.

His name is King Leopold II of Belgium.

He “owned” the Congo during his reign as the constitutional monarch of Belgium. After several failed colonial attempts in Asia and Africa, he settled on the Congo. He “bought” it and enslaved its people, turning the entire country into his own personal slave plantation. He disguised his business transactions as “philanthropic” and “scientific” efforts under the banner of the International African Society. He used their enslaved labor to extract Congolese resources and services. His reign was enforced through work camps, body mutilations, executions, torture, and his private army.

Most of us – I don’t yet know an approximate percentage but I fear its extremely high – aren’t taught about him in school. We don’t hear about him in the media. He’s not part of the widely repeated narrative of oppression (which includes things like the Holocaust during World War II). He’s part of a long history of colonialism, imperialism, slavery and genocide in Africa that would clash with the social construction of the white supremacist narrative in our schools. It doesn’t fit neatly into a capitalist curriculum. Making overtly racist remarks is (sometimes) frowned upon in polite society, but it’s quite fine not to talk about genocides in Africa perpetrated by European capitalist monarchs.

Mark Twain wrote a satire about Leopold called “King Leopold’s soliloquy; a defense of his Congo rule“, where he mocked the King’s defense of his reign of terror, largely through Leopold’s own words. It’s 49 pages long. Mark Twain is a popular author for American public schools. But like most political authors, we will often read some of their least political writings or read them without learning why the author wrote them (Orwell’s Animal Farm for example serves to re-inforce American anti-Socialist propaganda, but Orwell was an anti-capitalist revolutionary of a different kind – this is never pointed out). We can read about Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, but King Leopold’s Soliloquy isn’t on the reading list. This isn’t by accident. Reading lists are created by boards of education in order to prepare students to follow orders and endure boredom well. From the point of view of the Education Department, Africans have no history.

When we learn about Africa, we learn about a caricaturized Egypt, about the HIV epidemic (but never its causes), about the surface level effects of the slave trade, and maybe about South African Apartheid (which of course now is long, long over). We also see lots of pictures of starving children on Christian Ministry commercials, we see safaris on animal shows, and we see pictures of deserts in films and movies. But we don’t learn about the Great African War or Leopold’s Reign of Terror during the Congolese Genocide. Nor do we learn about what the United States has done in Iraq and Afghanistan, potentially killing in upwards of 5-7 million people from bombs, sanctions, disease and starvation. Body counts are important. And we don’t count Afghans, Iraqis, or Congolese.

There’s a Wikipedia page called “Genocides in History”. The Congolese Genocide isn’t included. The Congo is mentioned though. What’s now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo is listed in reference to the Second Congo War (also called Africa’s World War and the Great War of Africa), where both sides of the multinational conflict hunted down Bambenga and ate them. Cannibalism and slavery are horrendous evils which must be entered into history and talked about for sure, but I couldn’t help thinking whose interests were served when the only mention of the Congo on the page was in reference to multi-national incidents where a tiny minority of people were  eating each other (completely devoid of the conditions which created the conflict no less). Stories which support the white supremacist narrative about the subhumanness of people in Africa are allowed to be entered into the records of history. The white guy who turned the Congo into his own personal part-plantation, part-concentration camp, part-Christian ministry and killed 10 to 15 million Conglese people in the process doesn’t make the cut.

You see, when you kill ten million Africans, you aren’t called ‘Hitler’. That is, your name doesn’t come to symbolize the living incarnation of evil. Your name and your picture don’t produce fear, hatred, and sorrow. Your victims aren’t talked about and your name isn’t remembered.

Leopold was just one part of thousands of things that helped construct white supremacy as both an ideological narrative and material reality. Of course I don’t want to pretend that in the Congo he was the source of all evil. He had generals, and foot soldiers, and managers who did his bidding and enforced his laws. It was a system. But that doesn’t negate the need to talk about the individuals who are symbolic of the system. But we don’t even get that. And since it isn’t talked about, what capitalism did to Africa, all the privileges that rich white people gained from the Congolese genocide are hidden. The victims of imperialism are made, like they usually are, invisible.

* * If you liked this post, please consider visiting the author’s Facebook page and ‘liking’ it. Thank you! * *

You are in Whoville.

Amen!!! Although, from experience, sometimes you don't really know the person until you're in too deep.

I saw something like this floating around on tumblr and wanted to add to it

Omg I want them!

For years I’ve dreamt of having sports bras modelled off my favourite Marvel superhero suits and If I can ever figure out how, I’d love to have these made up! 

Omg- reminds me of the only baby blanket I tried to crochet for a friend. 10 years later it finally fits on his twin size bed. Lol!

Margaret + Knitting

Went to the doctor yesterday...

Doctor: "Have there been any changes in your life recently?" Me: "yeah I broke up with my boyfriend." Doctor: "you look like you've lost some weight too." Me: "yes i did! About 260 pounds." Doctor: ".........."

Dude. I'd marry a burrito if it meant I got Chipotle the rest of my life.

Totally me the last few nights. Lol.

Local WA artist Justin Hillgrove paints parodies and homages to the cartoons/anime/comics/etc that I just love. I won't post his art without permission but you should check out his website. Hellboy is one of my favorites!

Hello! I'm new to this whole blogging thing. I've been lurking around for a while but I thought I might finally give it a try instead of just liking and reblogging occasionally.

A little backstory-I just got out of a long relationship where I was mentally, emotionally and socially abused by someone I loved and that I thought loved me back. Over the course of 10 years, I have been systematically torn down, isolated from my friends and family and made to feel that my only worthwhile task in life was to constantly cater to someone else's needs and wants. It was a very gradual spiral, so much so that I didn't even notice! Every facet of my life was so controlled that my only escape was work and even then I had a cell phone tether. I had to lock myself in the bathroom at home or sneak out my phone at work just to be able to have a little bit of time to read fanfiction and quickly browse through Tumblr. Hence the lurking. Lol.

The Zosan community and several writers (especially one in particular-you know who you are!) kept me sane and made me realize that a relationship or another person should never define you. They gave me the courage to finally stand up and yell at the top of my lungs "Enough!!!"

My counselor recently asked me what I like to do and I honestly couldn't answer the question. I could tell you everything that my ex liked to do but nothing about myself.

My homework was to go home and find out what matters to me. Just me-not my friends, not my family and most definitely not my ex. It was the hardest thing I've done in a long, long time.

Needless to say it feels amazing to have the ability to go out and do what I want whenever I want. Not saying that I am actually going out but it's nice to have the option if I so chose. =D

When I was younger, freedom was something I took for granted. I used to stay up all night reading and writing fanfiction, going out clubbing with friends, hanging out with my family and loving life in general. Now in my mid-thirties, I find myself alone for the first time; a shadow of the outgoing, independant and carefree person I used to be with no fucking clue as to what I even enjoy doing. Makes me cry just thinking about it.

It's going to be a long journey but I believe I am ready for it.

Anyways, thanks for listening (reading) and if (when!) I find something I love to do, I'll be sure to let you know.

Financial statements. I'm a 21st century dragon.

Look to your left. The first thing you see is what you would hoard as a dragon.

a plate. I would hoard plates

I agree- most companies are more worried about image than profits. There is an entirely underserved market out there for big women that want to look cute in the latest styles. I also wish that they'd come up with a uniform sizing system for women. I mean WTF??? What do you mean I'm a 12-14 at old Navy but I'm an 18-20 at wet seal? !?! WTF?!?! I love the comment about buying a gift- I'm telling my friend about that one. She had the same experience at dress barn.

I realize thin privilege exists, but it seems like a lot of posts here are about clothes. Doesn't it just make economic sense to only carry small amounts of plus sized lines? Can we expect businesses to lose money in an attempt to not discriminate? And if so why? Really not trying to be a troll, just genuinely curious.

There is a fucking enormous untapped market here. “Plus size” starts at size 14 in the US, which is the average size of women in the US. Does that sound like they’d be losing money? Do you really think that so many fat people complaining about not being able to find clothes means that there’s somehow no money to be made? Specialist plus-size stores are able to charge 2-3x as much as similar straight size clothes; does that sound like there’s no money to be made?

Look, we’ve answered this many, many, MANY times. Go search the archives. FFS.

-MG

Kirsten (google correct to Kristen) is a horse. Lol. Had to jump on the bandwagon.

Omg-best ever! I have the whole Zorro series on DVD. Lol.

His Name Is Zoro  

(inspi)

The art is so effin amazing. I love Sanji's Joker suit.

muraha showed me some GREAT fashion photos…

Oh Zoro... It explains soooooo much!

The Horrifying Touchy Feely Bible Camp Staff.

Lmao! For some reason now I have this uncontrollable urge to start singing creepy rock hymns while staring longingly at tween campers....

WHAT IS YOUR SUPERVILLAIN NAME?

Totally digging the Popeye drive in.

Daniel Acuña.

Found this in a magazine on an airplane. Awesome story!