Fight Racism - Tumblr Posts

Makes me so happy that there are punks still doing this with me and keeping the OG scene symbols alive. I rock yellow laces to support all my colored kings and queens out there!

LACE CODE ISN'T DEAD

AND NEITHER IS PUNK

🤘🧷🤘

Lace code, anyone?

Hobie Brown is a fantastic character.

His design, concept, uniqueness and how HOT he is make him altogether very likeable. But all these things are not why I love him so much; it's what he represents that gets me.

The symbol in modern media he is for many different types of people. For one, he's pretty awesome for people of color to enjoy. Another black hero who can get down to business is always welcome, though it's nothing new for the Spiderverse universe with Miles Morales being our main protagonist. Having a British black character makes it all the more fun, diverse and interesting!

All that being said, the thing that warms my heart about Hobie Brown is what he means for the alternative community.

Im a punk. I'm also an anarchist.

Like anyone, I look for people in media who represent me in both appearance and ideals. As a plus sized person, finding people in media who look like me and aren't part of the toxic stereotype for fat people is uncommon. Chubby characters who don't make their weight part of their personality is unheard of.

Finding characters who properly represent my beliefs and ideals is nigh impossible in my experience. Seeing a punk in modern day popular media is rare. And when I say punk, I'm talking PUNK RAWK. Musicians with colorfully laced boots and symbols painted sloppily all over themselves. Gritty political activists in homemade clothes and piercings, fighting tooth and nail for what they believe in. In truth, I don't know if I've ever seen that in popular media; not authentically.

What do we get instead? Punk coded teenagers who don't really believe in anything, pissing people off for the sake of it. That ain't us. We believe in respect, love and morals. We believe in doing whatever is necessary to achieve the perfect world, whatever each individual believes that is.

The representation is even more insulting for anarchists. Everywhere are both mature antagonists and cartoon villains parading around preaching "anarchy" and completely misusing the word. Its to the point that my political belief is now more closely related to dictatorships (the literal OPPOSITE of anarchism!) or simply death and destruction rather than the true definition: no institutions, just people.

That word has been defiled. I've had people laugh at me and ridicule me when I share my political stance with them due to this stereotype. I've had people tell me I believe what I do just because it "sounds cool."

People that were uneducated to the concept in the first place have now been reeducated by an overlord walking across a battlefield of dead bodies in some movie screaming about "anarchy." Thanks Hollywood. Really appreciate that.

But Hobie is a punk. And he's an anarchist.

He's a hero. He's intelligent. He knows what he fights for and he fights well. That alone is revolutionary for the anarchist movement.

And in a MARVEL FILM. Millions of people watch Marvel films across the globe. Across the Spider verse has pulled in 1.35 Billion dollars. This is exactly what we need.

So, as a representative of my community, thank you Sony Pictures for this gift. I hope to see more like it. And while we're at it, thank you for all the diversity in this new film between all the ethnicities shown onscreen to putting someone my size in the mask!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(also if anyone has any recommendations for realistic punk characters in media I'd love to hear em)

Bayard Rustin was an American civil and gay rights activist, a leader in the social movements of socialism and nonviolence, and the founder of organizations such as the Congress of Racial Equality and the March on Washington Movement. He was an openly gay black man, Martin Luther King Jr.’s right hand man, a pioneer for equality even before the Civil Right’s movement - and he has been erased from history.

Bayard was born in Pensilvania in 1912. He was raised by his grandparents, only later learning that his older “sister” was actually his mother, having gotten pregnant at 16. In the 1930s, he studied at two historically black colleges, and briefly joined the Young Communist League. During World War II, he fought for racial equality in war-related hiring, and was sentenced to two years in jail for refusing to register for the draft. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, he played a huge role in the Civil Rights movement, the organization of the March on Washington, and advising MLK. He died of a ruptured appendix in 1987. 

Bayard was arrested over 20 times in his life for both his work in activism, and for being openly homosexual. Throughout his career, he faced backlash from allies and enemies alike for being open about his sexual orientation. He is an inspiration to us all for his work as an activist, organizer, and leader, never apologizing for being who he was.  In 2013, President Barack Obama granted him the Presidential Medal of Honor for his groundbreaking work - Bayard’s lifelong partner, Walter Neagle, accepted the award on his behalf.   

Dear Allies, 

Thank you for helping others. Thank you for supporting the people with less than you. Thank you for supporting gays as a straight person. Thank you for fighting racism as a white person. Thank you for being a feminist when you’re a dude. Thank you for caring about deprived communities when there’s no one else to help. Thank you for caring, and acting on that compassion, when you could easily turn your back. Thank you for helping when you know the risks the haters pose. Thank you for knowing you have to do something when no one is telling you there’s a fight you must join. Thank you for reading and listening and helping our fight for a better world.

Don’t listen to people who tell you that you don’t have a place, that you’re ignorant or appropriating. You are learning and you are trying and that goes farther than you think. You are helping those who have been shut down because their own efforts sometimes aren’t enough. You are aware of where you’ve been placed in society, and you are aware of the position of others - not everyone has all the rights you may have.  You are everywhere, and it’s your job to use your voices for good. Make our world a safe space. Thank you for loving - it does not go unnoticed.

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, everyone! Today we honor the legacy of one of the most inspiring and dedicated leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Before the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, racial segregation was a part of daily American life. MLK Jr. saw the injustice in this, and wanted to fight against it. A preacher and an activist, as well as a loving husband and father, he dedicated his career to improving the lives of African-Americans. Sit-ins were jeered and people were arrested, but Mr. King continued his work. He encouraged many Americans, black and white, to fight for racial equality. In the end, they succeeded.  Today we honor this man’s life, and the effect his message has had on America. The right’s and opportunities of this great country should never be denied to anyone - Martin Luther King Jr. helped teach us that. 

My English class has been exploring a unit on the Harlem Renaissance. And since Black History Month has been celebrating black achievement for the past few weeks, heres a report on one of my favorite artistic time periods. 

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of artistic and cultural revolution for the African-American community, originating in the NYC neighborhood of Harlem. In the early 20th century, African Americans mass-migrated to the North to escape poverty and racial segregation. They relocated in Northern cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and New York City, searching for jobs and housing. They found social and economic freedom where they came, especially in Harlem, a neighborhood of NYC. Harlem had previously housed rich white people, but low rent and open jobs allowed black migrants to fill the space instead. 

Harlem fostered a new sense of community and identity within the African-American community. During the 1920s, this manifested into a period of significant artistic and literary achievement. Black writers, musicians, and artists found pride in their identity, using their work to celebrate black identity and culture. Though these figures faced obstacles because of their color, and racial bias was common, Harlem of the 20s was a social hotspot for African-Americans. Writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston (my personal favorites) wrote extensively on the themes of racism and African-American identity. Musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith shot to fame, performing blues and jazz in Harlem and other cities. They performed in Harlem’s vibrant clubs, a common scene featured in paintings such as Archibad J. Motley’s iconic Nightlife. 

Though these icons, and many more, were able to have successful careers, most black Americans were treated poorly. Down South, Jim Crow laws segregated people based on race, leaving non-whites with fewer rights and opportunities. Northern cities weren’t legally segregated, but many African-Americans faced discrimination and lived in poverty. Change would come over long periods of time. But despite these challenges, African-American art and culture flourished for nearly a decade. Today, this inspiring and influential era would be known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Women belong to every minority; raise women up, and you raise up those minorities.

Today is the 3rd annual Women’s March, an international movement advocating for gender equality and human rights. The quote above is what my poster said at the first one two years ago. 

And it’s true: women are members of every community on the planet (unless you count fraternities, which I don’t). Religious, ethnic, racial, sexual -  you name it, women are a part of it. Unfortunately, lots of these groups often face discrimination and prejudice in any number of ways, for any number of reasons. Anywhere in the world, someone is always getting crap for being who they are. And regardless of their cultural identity, women often have it much worse.   

So let’s stop the hate against hijabis. Let’s stop underestimating women of color. Let’s stop the neglect of transgender woman, and the objectification of girls who like girls. 

Raise up the women, and you raise up the world. 

The queer community is it’s own worst enemy.   

It’s gay men and lesbians against bisexual people, who “just need to choose.” Angry spitfires who say asexual people aren’t really part of the community, aren’t really human. Cisgendered queers who degrade and dehumanize trans and non binary people.   

We put each other in boxes. We tell one another that there’s something false about that person’s LGBTQ+ identity. We say “you don’t belong, you have to fit into this cookie cutter. You can’t be that one, or none at all.” There’s always something wrong with you, but if you were to be something else, then you’ll be part of the community. We’ll finally get equal rights, if only you change. 

Get married, adopt kids. Don’t be poor, don’t be disabled, don’t be a person of color. You can be queer, but not too much, because then they won’t help us. You’ll scare them away. You can come under the umbrella, but if you’re this-or-that, we’ll push you out into the rain. 

This is what assimilation does to people. It pits them against each other, because everyone is holding themselves to a standard of a people that is not their own. And it isn’t just the LGBTQ+ community that does it. 

 ~ “You’re dark skinned - you’re not as good, not as clean, as people with light skin.”   ~ “You’re light skinned - you’re not black enough. Who do you think you are?” 

 ~ “You speak Spanish, so you’re living in the past; you aren’t ‘American’ enough.”  ~ “You don’t speak Spanish, so you aren’t in touch with you’re Latinx roots.” 

And round and round in circles. No one is safe, no one is free. There are too many eyes, too many boxes, and so an identity is scattered like loose change. A people forgets that they are all the same blood, in an effort to dilute it. This is what assimilation does to a people. Society hurts the community, which hurts the individual. All people, vs. your people, vs. you. 

To be queer is to be gifted with an eye-opening experience that never truly ends. It’s a life-long journey of discovery, about who you are and how you want to express that. It’s a description, not a definition. The LGBTQ+ community is vibrant, diverse, and all-encompassing. To be a part of it is to belong, to learn, and to gain friendship. It spans the globe, it brings out the best in people. Your never really stop seeing it’s beauty.   

But it’s made to be something else. It’s told it must be a set of easily identified categories. Queer people are told that they must fit one of these categories, and stick to it. Their identity must be a tight package to fit into. It must be easily understood and easily explained, because God forbid we confuse anyone! And so the queer individual suffers. 

And when the person suffers, so does the community.