i have never been a fan of History. from as early as elementary school, i learned that when people said "History" they really only meant theirs and not mine. by junior high school it was clear that my own history—that is, the history of people who are Black and American like me, in so far as U.S. History textbooks were concerned...
so i finally got to see Black Panther again ( #WAKANDAFOREVER AHHHHHH–) and am now at a Starbucks basking in the afterglow of the movie, about to attempt to herd my thoughts into a more coherent cacophony of words than exists in my head at present. wish me luck.
as usual, i find myself turning to YouTube as a resource for information only to be reminded that…. YouTube is So Damn White. most things non-binary and / or trans are So Damn White. a search for “non-binary” and “testosterone” turns up almost nothing but skinny, short haired, white, non-binary people, none of whom i can really see myself in. which is nothing new. that’s part of the reason i’m on YouTube in the first place.
a while ago i wrote a random post titled “story time: when “African” is more important than “American””. well, it’s time to follow that up with another even more random post. back when i lived in Brisbane, Australia i used to use public transportation (photoed) a lot to get around before eventually getting up the courage to drive on the “wrong” side of the road. i met people from all over while living in Australia, but in so far as i can remember, i only ever met one African-American person during the 3 years that i lived there. bad luck on my part, perhaps. maybe. not exactly. but i tell myself that it is to ignore the other factors at play because the truth is that no matter what country i’m in, it’s a novelty to meet another African-American abroad and i’m well aware of the various reasons for that.…
a former coworker (W) and i were in Tokyo today at Sensoji, a major tourist trap in Asakusa that’s in every foreign EVERY guidebook ever. a place that i generally avoid except i was playing tour guide for the day. i was off somewhere snapchatting, as i do, and when i came back to where W was there was a random middle-aged Japanese man excitedly talking to him about where he was from (Colorodo). i’m standing there for a minute or two half listening to their convo while taking random photos, as i also do, when the man realizes that i’m with the guy he’s trying to chat up in broken English. he decides to do the same with me, except… man: ooh, where are you from? me: Las Vegas. man: no, where?? me: Las Vegas…? America…? *confused as people generally know Las Vegas* man: no no, where are you from long…
anonymous said: hey, thanks megabucks for yr posts on apora- and aliagender. i was wondering if you’ve read biyuti binoahan, who afai could tell *was* arguing that white ppl cannot have a non-binary gender as it would be appropriative/racist? i feel like that particular discourse took root in many (white, masculine-nb) circles, and was The Citation about binarism. (also, my norse pagan ergi friend got bullied off tumblr for stating they had a cultural nb gender as a white person.. bluh. Emotions run Strong) hi! 🙂 i know of biyuti (b. binaohan), but i’m not sure whether or not i’ve read the writing in question. this, perhaps? i’ll have to check it out later when i’m not running on 2hrs of sleep and short on spoons. either way, based on what you’ve said about it, i’m fairly certain that i have come across arguments about binarism and non-binary genders on…
this post was triggered by three posts (tw: violence) posted recently by @nonbinary-support arguing against the use of aporagender, which has in turn triggered even more posts about race and gender.
this is post is the blog version of a vlog that i recently posted to my YouTube channel. the content is essentially the same, but feel free to check out both. as you can probably tell by the title, this is going to be a rant. that said, i hope that something can be learned from it. why have i titled this “Dear White People”? even if white people aren’t solely guilty of what i’m about to talk about, i’m calling out white people specifically because i see white people of various countries doing this far more than anyone else. if you yourself are white and you consider yourself to be an ally to people of color, this post was written specifically for you.
i’ve long since had issues with how some people, specifically white people, repeatedly misuse the term “People of Color” (aka “POC”). at long last i’m finally putting my frustrations into words in the hope of bringing awareness to these issues. in the interest of being as brief as possible, in this video i’ve summarize my issues regarding white people’s usage of this term into two points: treating POC as if they are a homogeneous group. ( @00:29 ~ ) treating whiteness as if it is the default not only in one’s own country, but internationally. ( @4:12 ~ ) obviously when people who consider themselves to be allies to POC make such mistakes the mistakes are honest ones with no ill intent behind them. however, that does not change the fact that mistakes are being made and that these mistakes should be corrected. if you consider yourself to be an…
