brownroundboi

Photo

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:17:16 -0400

"if the ocean can calm itself, so can you. we are both salt water mixed with air."

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:47:51 -0400

“if
the ocean
can calm itself,
so can you.
we
are both
salt water
mixed
with
air.”

- meditation, nayyirah waheed (via nayyirahwaheed)

http://instagram.com/p/amPRTcS68k/

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:47:33 -0400

http://instagram.com/p/amPRTcS68k/

lalunafemme: smart-gardener: so-pretty-is-as-pretty-does: Gard...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 02:43:16 -0400

lalunafemme:

smart-gardener:

so-pretty-is-as-pretty-does:

Garden from start to finish and free DIY plant markers. http://wp.me/2u2vx

Lovely garden! And love the little markers!

cute!

{TW: anti-LGBT bigotry. discussion of violence} Brooklyn: Police Beat Gay Man and Use Homophobic Slurs, Victim and Friends Say

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 01:49:38 -0400

{TW: anti-LGBT bigotry. discussion of violence} Brooklyn: Police Beat Gay Man and Use Homophobic Slurs, Victim and Friends Say :

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

A 26-year-old gay man was beaten eight days ago just outside the 79th police precinct in Brooklyn by police officers who made homosexual slurs, the victim and two of his roommates who witnessed the incident tell the Voice.

The encounter, which took place around 4 a.m. on Sunday, June 2 and is under investigation by NYPD Internal Affairs, erupted after an officer standing in the precinct parking lot mistakenly accused one of the men of urinating on the side of the stationhouse and then called in as many as 5 other cops to join in the assault.

Williamsburg waiter Josh Williams, all of 5-foot-8, 140 pounds, suffered a laceration on his face which required four stitches, bruised ribs, a black eye and scrape on his torso. Williams and his roommates—Tony Maenza and Ben Collins, both 24—were then arrested on specious charges in what they call an effort to cover-up the attack. Maenza made an iPhone video of a portion of the incident.

The Voice has also learned that NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau started investigating after someone apparently associated with the precinct filed a complaint.

“This case is so extreme in how the encounter escalated so fast over something so silly and turned so violent,” says Williams’ lawyer Cynthia Conti-Cook. “Based on how the incident started, there’s very little to justify such extreme action other than homophobia.”

Transgender Surgeons in the U.S.

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 01:47:42 -0400

boyqueen:

genderwarriors:

We’re working on a user-friendly map for finding transgender surgeons in the US. Please email us (genderwarriors@gmail.com) with any additions and edits you might have.

http://bit.ly/186QEIg

Oh cool! Reblogging this to look at in more detail later

Transgender Surgeons in the U.S.

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:57:10 -0400

boyqueen:

genderwarriors:

We’re working on a user-friendly map for finding transgender surgeons in the US. Please email us (genderwarriors@gmail.com) with any additions and edits you might have.

http://bit.ly/186QEIg

Oh cool! Reblogging this to look at in more detail later

internal-acceptance-movement: 10 WAYS WE BODY SHAME WITHOUT...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:41:13 -0400

internal-acceptance-movement:

10 WAYS WE BODY SHAME WITHOUT REALIZING IT:

1. Saying Things Like, “She Would Be So Pretty If…”

Have you ever uttered anything along the lines of, “But she has such a gorgeous face” or “She would be more beautiful if she put on a few pounds”? You are limiting your idea of beauty to a cultural stereotype. Beauty is not conditional. If you can’t say anything nice, maybe it’s time to learn how.

2. Judging Other People’s Clothes

While it’s fine for you to choose clothes any way you want, nobody else is required to adhere to your style. The person wearing that outfit is, in fact, pulling it off, even if you think she’s too flat chested, big chested, short, tall, fat or thin. And fat people don’t have to confine themselves to dark colors and vertical stripes, no matter who prefers it. And spandex? It’s a right, not a privilege.

3. Making It an ‘Us vs. Them’ Thing

The phrase “Real Women Have Curves” is highly problematic. Developed as a response to the tremendous body shaming that fat women face, it still amounts to doing the same thing in the opposite direction. The road to high self-esteem is probably not paved with hypocrisy. Equally problematic is the phrase “boyish figure” as if a lack of curves makes us somehow less womanly. The idea that there is only so much beauty, only so much self-esteem to go around is a lie. Real women come in all shapes and sizes, no curves required.

4. Avoiding the Word “Fat”

Dancing around the word fat is an insinuation that it’s so horrible that it can’t even be said. The only thing worse than calling fat people “big boned” or “fluffy” is using euphemisms that suggest body size indicates the state of our health or whether we take care of ourselves. As part of a resolution to end body shaming, try nixing phrases like “she looks healthy,” or “she looks like she is taking care of herself,” and “she looks like she is starving” when what you actually mean is a woman is thin.

5. Making Up Body Parts

We could all lead very full lives if we never heard the words cankles, muffin top, apple shaped, pear shaped or apple butt ever again. We are not food.

6. Congratulating People for Losing Weight

You don’t know a person’s circumstances. Maybe she lost weight because of an illness. You also don’t know if she’ll gain the weight back (about 95 percent of people do), in which case earlier praise might feel like criticism. If someone points out that a person has lost weight, consider adding something like, “You’ve always been beautiful. I’m happy if you are happy.” But if a person doesn’t mention her weight loss, then you shouldn’t mention it either. Think of something else you can compliment.

7. Using Pretend Compliments

“You’re really brave to wear that.” By the way, wearing a sleeveless top or bikini does not take bravery. “You’re not fat, you’re beautiful.” These things are not mutually exclusive — a person can be fat and beautiful. “You can afford to eat that, you’re thin.” You don’t know if someone has an eating disorder or something else; there is no need to comment on someone’s body or food intake. “You’re not that fat” or “You’re not fat, you workout,” need to be struck from your vocabulary. Suggesting that looking fat is a bad thing is also insulting.

8. Thinking of Women as Baby-Making Machines

One of my readers mentioned that her gynecologist called her “good breeding stock.” Also awful: “baby making hips.” Worst of all is when people ask fat people when they are due. As has famously been said, unless you can see the baby crowning, do not assume that someone is pregnant.

9. Sticking Your Nose in Other People’s Exercise Routines

A subtle form of body shaming occurs when people make assumptions or suggestions about someone’s exercise habits based on their size. Don’t ask a fat person, “Have you tried walking?” Don’t tell a thin person, “You must spend all day in the gym.” I have had people at the gym congratulate me for starting a workout program when, in fact, I started working out at age 12 and never stopped. I had a thin friend who started a weight-lifting program and someone said to her, “Be careful, you don’t want to bulk up.” How about not completely over-stepping your boundaries and being rude and inappropriate?

10. Playing Dietitian

If you have no idea how much a person eats or exercises, you shouldn’t tell her to eat less and move more or suggest she put more meat on her bones. (Even if you do know what she eats, don’t do it). How do you know she’s looking for nutritional advice from you or the newest weight-loss tip you saw on Dr. Oz?

Written by: Ragen Chastain

Photo

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:40:14 -0400

strugglingtobeheard: sweetlexi: memoriasconsazon: Pictures...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:35:09 -0400

strugglingtobeheard:

sweetlexi:

memoriasconsazon:

Pictures from “You Can Touch My Hair” Interactive Exhibit @ Union Square June 9, 2013.

Bahaha

omg tho. yesssss. wow.

[#cornbreadsiopao getting his #summer stance in the morning. we've one fan facing the human bed, one facing the #dog bed. this demonstrates his prerference. #mutt #puppy #emotionaltherapyanimal #blackandtan #adoration] ♥♥

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:15:30 -0400

[#cornbreadsiopao getting his #summer stance in the morning. we've one fan facing the human bed, one facing the #dog bed. this demonstrates his prerference. #mutt #puppy #emotionaltherapyanimal #blackandtan #adoration] ♥♥

krysfree: Dapper. khafraco: Octavia Butler Tee Submitted by:...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 08:26:44 -0400

krysfree:

Dapper.

khafraco:

Octavia Butler Tee

Submitted by: Philadelphia Print Works
Photographed by: Adachi Photography
Styled by: Iye Yindae, Cultured Couture Gallery

krysfree: I’m starting a business with @kholi. Here are a few...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 08:26:29 -0400

krysfree:

I’m starting a business with @kholi. Here are a few cool shots from our recent business warming.

khafraco:

Khafra Company Presents: In the Mix - A Business Warming

We recently had our business warming in downtown Oakland, CA.

You know … like a house warming but instead of friends and families bringing you gift cards and and ~~useless~~ items to fill our house, we invited business owners (some friends, some soon to be friends) to get together and celebrate the beginning of Khafra Company with us!

They didn’t bring us presents. But, they did bring us the best thing business owners can ask for: good community and great ideas.

PLUS: More than a few of these entrepreneurs left with new connections to enhance their own brands. And we could all use a network that … well … works.

Oh ya … We also threw in some amazing food and desserts from Kainbigan and LulaMae Bakes!

Want to join in the celebration?! We want to know what items you love the most so that we can stock up for our official online boutique launch in the fall.

How can you help?! We’re releasing a small batch of summer accessory samples next week. Sign-up today for first dibs.

It’s that simple.

thepeoplesrecord: Philadelphia adopting ‘doomsday’...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:00:08 -0400

thepeoplesrecord:

Philadelphia adopting ‘doomsday’ school-slashing plan despite $400 million prison project
June 6, 2013

Days after Philadelphia officials pushed the city one step closer to a so-called “doomsday” education plan that would see two dozen schools close, construction began on a $400-million prison said to be the second-most expensive state project ever.

Pennsylvania’s School Reform Commission voted on June 1 to approve a $2.4 billion budget, ignoring hours of pleas from students, parents, educators and community members who warned the budget would cripple city schools.

The plan would close 23 public schools, roughly 10 per cent of the city’s total. Commissioners rejected a proposal that would have only closed four of the 27 schools that were on the block for closure.

Without the means to cover a $304 million debt, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, students can expect to go back to school in September without new books, paper, counselors, clubs, librarians, assistant principals or secretaries. All athletics, art and music programs would be eliminated and as many as 3,000 people could lose their jobs.

Only one of five state commissioners voted against the proposal, warning that Republican Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett’s administration had not looked hard enough elsewhere for proper funds.

That $304 million windfall is unlikely to be filled because the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania House of Representatives recently passed a tax break for corporations that will cost Pennsylvania residents an estimated $600 million to $800 million annually.

Newly unemployed teachers might consider submitting their resumes to the Department of Corrections, though, with the news that the supposedly cash-strapped government is digging deep to spend $400 million for the construction of State Correctional Institutions Phoenix I and II.

The penitentiary, which is technically two facilities, will supplement at least two existing jails, the Western Penitentiary at Pittsburgh and Fayette County Jail. Pittsburgh’s Western Penitentiary was built in 2003 with the original intention of replacing Fayette County Jail, but the prison has struggled with lawsuits claiming widespread physical and sexual abuse of prisoners.

Scheduled to be completed in 2015, the new prison’s cell blocks and classroom will be capable of housing almost 5,000 inmates. Officials said there will be buildings for female inmates, the mentally ill and a death row population.

Journalist Rhania Khalek noted that the racial disparities in the education system and prison complex, where 60 per cent of all people are of color, have created a literal “school-to-prison-pipeline.”

“In Philadelphia, black students comprise 81 per cent of those who will be impacted by the closings despite accounting for just 58 per cent of the overall student population,” she wrote. “In stark contrast, just 4 per cent of those affected are white kids who make up 14 per cent of Philly students. And though they make up 81 per cent of Philadelphia students, 93 per cent of kids affected by the closings are low-income.”

Source
Photo: Decarcerate PA marching through Harrisburg on the way to protest school closures at the Capitol.

"Kanye West is white America’s worst nightmare. Because as much as one may attempt to dismiss him —..."

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:00:11 -0400

“

Kanye West is white America’s worst nightmare. Because as much as one may attempt to dismiss him — by calling him an asshole or classless or deranged or various other adjectives that fill the comment sections of literally every article about him — you still have to turn on your regularly scheduled late night comedy program and stare him in the face. You can’t avoid Kanye. He’s made very sure of that.

[…]

Kanye is not a “new slave” in the same sense as the victims of the prison industrial complex, but he is still trapped in a world that expects him to not only be complicit with the struggle of his people, but to be appreciative that he is not one of them. And on top of all that, while he gets to exist in the world of the 1%, having the money and signifiers of success still aren’t enough to make his (white) 1% peers actually even respect him.

[…]

The ideals of Public Enemy are as relevant today as they were in the 80s, but hip-hop was nowhere near as dominant and omnipresent a cultural force as it is at this moment; to compare the reach of their messages is silly. Upper-middle class white families did not have to deal with Public Enemy if they didn’t want to. Similarly with politically-minded “noise rap” artists that have been name-dropped in reviews of Kanye’s new material — it’s all well and good for Death Grips and Blackie and even Killer Mike to espouse similar messages and sounds (and honestly, the sonic qualities of “New Slaves” and “Black Skinhead” are hardly at the top of the list of why they’re important), but none of them have anywhere near the amount of visibility and influence as Kanye, even if they did hit it first.

[…]

People in current positions of comfort and stability are so willing to dismiss the transgressive thoughts of an angry black man that they will use any convenient excuse to diminish from them; if someone says something that makes you uncomfortable, why not immediately change the subject to his girlfriend’s ass or that time he yelled at a papparazzi or that time he got drunk and embarrassed a white girl? When was it exactly that Kanye shifted, in the eyes of the mainstream, from lovable polo-wearing backpacker to perpetually and unanimously An Asshole? When, precisely, did everything he said get immediately categorized as a “rant” or “controversial” regardless of the actual content? I want to say it was around the time when he said that George Bush didn’t care about black people on live tv. Hmm. Odd.

”

- Meaghan Garvey, Who Will Survive In America? (via machistado)

shiftingself: afrosandprose: Tonight I debuted my documentary...

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:51:01 -0400

shiftingself:

afrosandprose:

Tonight I debuted my documentary “Why Do All The Black Girls Sit Together?”

mayoknave: 45andsingle: Happy Birthday! This was the number...

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:50:11 -0400

mayoknave:

45andsingle:

Happy Birthday! This was the number one hit on the year you were born.

Artist: Roberta Flack
Track: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Album: 45 rpm single
Year: 1972

The Theme Is: 70s Soul

Such a great song.

[#cornbreadsiopao getting his #summer stance in the morning. we've one fan facing the human bed, one facing the #dog bed. this demonstrates his prerference. #mutt #puppy #emotionaltherapyanimal #blackandtan #adoration] ♥♥

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:12:36 -0400

"Black transgender people had an unemployment rate of 26%, twice that of transgender people as a..."

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:19:49 -0400

“

Black transgender people had an unemployment rate of 26%, twice that of transgender people as a whole, and four times the general population. 34% reported income under $10,000/year, more the double the poverty rate of all trans people, and over eight times that of the general population.

These studies confirm what many in the community already know: that those with intersecting identities such as being a trans-woman and a person of color experience one oppression compounded by another.

”

- http://www.basicrights.org/news/trans-justice-news/new-studies-examine-violence-directed-at-transgender-people-of-color/ (via stoppingviolencegivingvoices)

WHAT BLACK TRANS PEOPLE ARE BROKE WOW SURPRISE

(via crackerhell)

Reblogged without comment, but my Oregon homeslices will understand why I’m making a very, very pointed no comment.

(via ericainchoate)

DYSAETHESIA AETHIOPICA: My Thoughts on TWoC CrowdFunding in Light of KOKUMO's & Ja'briel's Indiegogo Campaigns

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:19:32 -0400

DYSAETHESIA AETHIOPICA: My Thoughts on TWoC CrowdFunding in Light of KOKUMO's & Ja'briel's Indiegogo Campaigns:

janetmock:

On the subject of crowdfunding…I have noticed that most campaigns don’t feature the intersections of race + trans womanhood.

It’s rare in fact that trans women of color (from low-income and/or rural backgrounds) ask the world for help.

My personal outlook is that most of…

THIS EXACTLY.