Return of the Ankh

Middle School friendly activism related documentaries?

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:08:28 -0400

I’m teaching an activism class and I think my students don’t fully grasp the depth of institutional injustice that activists fight against (not that I expect them to, they’re in 6h grade). But I know they respond well to these things being spelled out in video form. i.e. I played A Girl Like Me for a group of girls in a different class and had a fantastic discussion on colorism that I do not believe they have ever been given the outlet to do otherwise.

So I’m wondering if anyone knows - off hand - of any video clips or short documentaries that go well in a sixth grade classroom setting. Or clips from a particular interview that would be good to show. For instance I’m thinking of combing through The Black Power Mixtape to look for some snippets.

I just want them to have a better grasp of the “isms” that we will be helping them fight against this semester.

youcrashquimssaysfuckthepolice: Yes, this.

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:00:20 -0500

youcrashquimssaysfuckthepolice:

Yes, this.

newsweek: Andrew Sullivan points to this chart from Razib Khan...

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:52:11 -0400

newsweek:

Andrew Sullivan points to this chart from Razib Khan breaking down public opinion on the right to abortion in cases of rape. As he notes, “no demographic group, not even biblical literalists or the extremely conservative, breaks fifty percent in denying abortion to rape victims.”

theduty: #boom.

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 07:42:49 -0400

theduty:

#boom.

issarae: New Shirts are HERE! Big thanks to @GraphicFiasco! To...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:48:52 -0400

issarae:

New Shirts are HERE! Big thanks to @GraphicFiasco! To purchase go to Our Store.

AWKWARD BLACK GIRL

afripopmag: PopAfricana’s Spring 2012 magazine cover brings...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:46:38 -0400

afripopmag:

PopAfricana’s Spring 2012 magazine cover brings sheer delight!!

Help me with my senior thesis?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:44:07 -0400

newwavefeminism:

So essentially I’m looking at anti-hegemonic discourse & activism and [you guessed it] tumblr. and twitter too. & the importance of these tools for organizing and empowering marginalized groups. But I need help finding examples of this on tumblr (and also just any suggestions would be appreciated)

I’m breaking my research down into these areas:

Social Justice “counter hegemonic” discourse: which means I will be looking through different tags and analyzing how certain tags are used as a space for certain discussions EX: feminism, womanism, LGBT, politics, activism, racism, safe space… etc (and tags I should add???)

How tumblogs & twitters are used to organize & empower: this is where I need links and examples. If anyone out there identifies their blog as a space of empowerment & organizing/mobilizing I would love it if you posted the link in the space below the post. Especially posts to specific posts that you deem pertinent to this (calls to action and such)

Networking/coordination: I know there are lots of blogs that try to act as a central space to bring people together - so if anyone identifies as that i’d like to know

Controlling and or owning your space: not sure how i’m going to measure this, but I definitely want to highlight the way in which one is in complete control over the discussions that happen on their blog/Timeline. and how people set guidelines on what is and isn’t going to happen on their space. (for instance, people demanding an education on someone’s personal blog)

By the end of this, I will also be able to compile all the links you all send me and save it as a reference in the future.

I definitely want to make sure that my thesis doesn’t include blogs that would rather not be included/published so PLEASE don’t send me links to blogs other than your own. I would love help with my research, but I also don’t want to be unethical. But also, my research is still in its planning stages so if anyone notices any glaring problems with how I’m formatting this drop me a line!

Thanks in advance everyone!

Please reblog, tweet & share!

Kickstarter - The Misadventures of AWKWARD Black Girl

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:27:18 -0400

Kickstarter - The Misadventures of AWKWARD Black Girl:

newwavefeminism:

cindysherman:

They’ve now reached their minimum funding goal and that’s excellent, but I’d like to say that the argument that Hollywood/the powers that be always make against funding the work of ANY marginalized group is that it will only appeal to people of that group and we’ve got to prove that it’s not true. I’m white and I’m definitely pissed at the lack of people of color on television, and I think that this show looks awesome. The creators seem smart and totally invested in their project which is what I look for, not “Oooh! White people! I guess this is for me!”

I definitely hear that argument too. On my campus there is this new Cultural Education Center that wasn’t fully backed by all of the college’s trustees. Main argument “so is it only going to be for people like YOU?” umm 1) if someone feels like they aren’t welcomed in a center that celebrates CULTURE then that’s their own issue. I’m not a science major yet I don’t avoid the science center - but suddenly when culture is involved its a problem? and 2) why does no one understand that in a campus where the culture is homogenous safe spaces are vital. So when non people of color get upset at spaces that don’t seem “meant for them” why can’t they understand that thats how some PoC feel when they’re forced to live and reside in these communities where they’re the outsider?

The same goes for television. You feel excluded when the representations of “america” are really just manifestations of what the “Hollywood powers that be” believe makes up America - not actual experiences. I have one friend who once stated (in regards to TV) Everything all black is for black people, but everything all white is for everybody!

Kickstarter - The Misadventures of AWKWARD Black Girl

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:27:03 -0400

Kickstarter - The Misadventures of AWKWARD Black Girl:

newwavefeminism:

strugglingtobeheard:

ashawo-kekele:

help them out. this show is awesome :-)

I haven’t watched out but the reviews are great, so do it if you can!

Wow. They’re just one grand shy of their 30,000 goal - and kickstarter only funds projects if they meet the FULL goal.

Here is why this project is personally important to me. Its written and directed and stars an “awkward black girl.” Its the first show that, as a woman of color, I actually relate to. IN TWENTY ONE YEARS of my life, this is the first honest and actual representation of my experiences as a woman of color. It doesn’t portray me as a video vixen, an unwed mother, uneducated, lazy, ignorant or anything like that. Are there women of color who have narratives like that? Sure, and that’s fine. But to take the vast variety of women of color and generalize them to the few tropes that society vilifies the most is what I find wrong with television these days. Thus, I fully support independent done by people of color that shows true representations that fall outside of the box. But not only that, I support independent artists that refuse to let hollywood gatekeeping stand in their way of doing the art that they love and garnering the audience they deserve.

SOOO help keep this show on the youtube airwaves and sustain these fantastic cast!

PLUS! If you pledge 25 bucks you get a wristband, a personal thank you, and a digital download of the ENTIRE season.

Debunking the Big Lie Right-Wingers Use to Justify Black Poverty and Unemployment

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:22:34 -0400

Debunking the Big Lie Right-Wingers Use to Justify Black Poverty and Unemployment:

Economic factors and changes in public policies, not manifestations of “black culture,” explain African Americans’ relatively poorer economic outcomes.

More from the article:

It’s a myth that should be put to rest by the economic experience of the African American community over the past 20 years. Because what Kern and other adherents of the “culture of poverty” thesis can’t explain is why blacks’ economic fortunes advanced so dramatically during the 1990s, retreated again during the Bush years and then were completely devastated in the financial crash of 2008.

In order to buy the cultural story, one would have to believe that African Americans adopted a “culture of success” during the Clinton years, mysteriously abandoned it for a “culture of failure” under Bush and finally settled on a “culture of poverty” shortly after Lehman Brothers crashed.

That’s obviously nonsense. It was exogenous economic factors and changes in public policies, not manifestations of “black culture,” that resulted in those widely varied outcomes.

Interesting article, especially when it goes on to break down the facts behind “The Clinton Boom, the Bush Bust and the Great Black Depression”

afro-art-chick: Black Panther Selling Party’s Memorabilia A...

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:34:49 -0400

afro-art-chick:

Black Panther Selling Party’s Memorabilia

A member of the Black Panthers sells books written by party cofounder Bobby Seale at Yale University. Students and demonstrators from around the US have gathered at Yale University in support of the Black Panther Party while several party leaders, including cofounder Bobby Seale, are on trial.

Photographer: JP Laffont

Location: New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Credit: © JP Laffont/Sygma/CORBIS

daniellemertina: theafrosistuh: Anyone who truly knows me,...

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:26:31 -0400

daniellemertina:

theafrosistuh:

Anyone who truly knows me, KNOWS that I refuse to wear diamonds, no matter how much the jewelry store may hold up their plaques that say that they don’t sell conflict diamonds, there is no way they got them without exploiting the people who mined them in Africa. So if a man ever asked to marry me with a diamond ring he would get DENIED immediately because he clearly doesn’t know me.

I feel the same way. I don’t even want jewelry from any African country unless I actually know that it is benefiting the place it came from and not somebody in Europe. I’d rather get it from Europe in that case.

"If you are a brother who dates only dark-skinned women as a conscious political act, while..."

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:03:53 -0400

“If you are a brother who dates only dark-skinned women as a conscious political act, while admirable, you’re not free of color consciousness. I think that at this moment, you see more complexity; you see more diversity, whether it’s in magazines or in film. But that doesn’t mean that we’re in the clear. If we say, “You know what? Light-skinned people are out and now we’re going with dark-skinned cats like Idris Elba,” we’re still fetishizing color. And that’s not freedom.”

- Mark Lamont Hill

Sweet Design Studio Celebrating woman of color, style and...

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:41:00 -0400

Sweet Design Studio

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