June 19, 2013

A Simple Reflection on White Privilege

What is white privilege?

It’s not having to hear comments like: “He got in where? [insert name of top school]. No way! He’s not smart enough. He only got in because he’s black.”


Right, because as black students we didn’t take the same courses, complete the same homework, take the same standardized tests, take the same ACT/SAT and graduate with a high school degree like white students. We simply checked the box that said we were black on our college applications and were granted admission into any school of our choice.

Instead of automatically jumping to the argument of affirmative action in college admission, I hope you realize that comments like this dismiss 13 years of schooling. Instead, it favors the opinion that the only way a black student can get into a top college is because of race. It has nothing at all to do with intellect or hard work.

Do you get it now?

June 19, 2013 • 1 note

I hate having depression. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere. For a few weeks maybe even a month or so I’ll be fine then WHAM! It comes back with a vengeance. Keeps me from sleeping, laughing, dreaming about a better future. Instead I’m listless. Stuck in a lethargic state that keeps me locked inside my own head. I doubt everything. I over think everything. The worst part is feeling lonely.

June 16, 2013 • 1,194 notes • weareallsunflowers

Reading is not peaceful.

Reading should send you through a roller coaster of emotions. Reading propels you to other worlds and dimensions. Reading makes you put down the book in embarrassment from the actions of its characters. Reading sends you back and forward through time. Reading puts you in the minds of others. Reading connects you to characters you soon find you can't live without. If you find reading peaceful, you haven't been doing it correctly.
June 15, 2013 • 887 notes • advicetowriters.com
Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong. It is no wonder if we sometimes tend to take ourselves perhaps a bit too seriously.
Anne Lamott (via stoppingandseeing)

(via writeworld)

June 11, 2013 • 82 notes • amandaspoetry

when angelina jolie got a mastectomy,

every guy had their say in what they thought she did wrong with her body,

saying she wouldn’t be beautiful anymore,

but beauty doesn’t trump life,

and no one owes beauty to anybody.

When they told me in middle school that if I shaved my legs,

grew my hair out,

and wore more makeup,

that I would be more beautiful,

I wish I would have told them,

that I didn’t owe anyone anything,

and my body is mine to love,

it’s not yours

or his

or hers

or theirs

my body is mine to love,

and I don’t owe your form of beauty,

to anyone.

I am a two year old world atlas,
and your definition of beauty hasn’t been invented yet in my body,

and I am still finding who I am,
and I am still figuring out which way points to my heart,
and I am still trying to discover my own beauty

so don’t try to sell me

mold me

and change me

because I owe you zero percent of my body.

you don’t owe beauty to anyone (via amandaspoetry)
June 7, 2013 • 5,021 notes • peggingwithstyles
liking someone who isn't black: I hope they like black girls
liking someone who is black: I hope they like black girls
June 5, 2013 • 20,711 notes • stay-safe-stay-strongg
Person: hey have you read any good books lately?
Me: are you ready for this conversation?
June 3, 2013 • 114,655 notes • provingmyexistence

1. There will be several days that you daydream about stepping in front of a city bus. Don’t. It will not be beautiful. It will not be brave. It will be selfish. It will be broken. Your mother will cry.

2. Don’t write for him. Write for you. Write for others like you. Write so the girl that thinks about stepping in front of public transportation doesn’t. Don’t be selfish.

3. When you will yourself to sleep and it doesn’t come- get up. It doesn’t matter that it’s 3 am. There will be other 3 am’s. Take a shower. Take two. Wash him out of your hair. Write a poem. Read the same book you’ve read 202 times again. The 203rd time might tell you something different. Don’t stay in bed- you will think about the bus again.

4. Don’t kiss him because he’s broken. Don’t kiss him because his laughter never reaches his eyes. Don’t try and fix him. Fix yourself first. Be selfish. He can’t save you.

5. Date yourself. Take yourself out to eat. Don’t share your popcorn at the movies with anyone. Stroll around an art museum alone. Fall in love with canvases. Fall in love with yourself.

6. Dress up and wear red lipstick and get drunk with your friends. They’re the ones that will pick you up. Don’t kiss him. Or him. Don’t fall asleep on strange couches with strange boys. When his hand slides up your dress walk away. Hit him. Don’t kiss him. He can’t save you.

7. Get another tattoo. Get five more. Get another hole in your ear. Don’t listen to your dad. You will still be able to get a job. Did you really want to be employed by someone like your father? Haven’t you had enough of judgmental old white men anyway? Get fuck you tattooed in tiny letters on your hip.

8. When you feel the yearning for a new city- start over. Take 200 bucks and a three suitcases. Work anywhere that will have you. Meet strange people and forget your name. Call yourself Ruby. No one will know the difference. Remember to call your mother. Don’t be selfish. Come home when you find yourself in the strangers and the small one bedroom apartment.

9. Don’t whisper evil things into your own ear. Other people are going to shout them at you. Be your own hero. Keep a sword on your key ring.

10. Don’t step in front of a city bus. It will not be beautiful. Live. Stay up all night with a boy that promises you everything and means it. Live. See shitty local bands with a friend. Wear a different band’s t-shirt. No one will care. Live. Have a baby girl with tiny fingers and tiny toes someday. Pour love into her until it’s overflowing. Live. Wake up. Staying in bed all day is not poetic.

Live. Live.

Live.

Do you hear that? It’s me. It’s your life. Wake up.

(via rebuildandreb0und)

May 29, 2013 • 20,898 notes • femalegazereview
[TW: rape]
First you’re taught to fear a phantom, a man in black, a man with a knife, a man who’ll pounce in dark alleys. Well-intentioned women—mothers, aunts, teachers—will train you to protect yourself: Don’t wear your hair in a ponytail; it’s easier to grab. Hold your keys in one hand; hold your pepper spray in the other. Avoid dark alleys. When you reach young adulthood, the lessons change. They acquire an undertone of disgust: Don’t drink so much. Don’t wear such short skirts. You’re sending mixed signals; you’re putting yourself at risk. If you follow the advice and it never happens—if you end up one of the three out of four—you can convince yourself that safety is a product of your own making, a reflection of inherent goodness. But if you’re paying attention, you realize something doesn’t add up. Because it keeps happening: to your sisters; to your friends; to little girls and grown women you’ll never meet, in places like Cleveland, Texas; Steubenville, Ohio; New Delhi. Good people, bad people, neutral. It keeps happening in TV shows and novels and movies—they open on the missing girl, the dead girl, the raped girl. If you’re paying attention, you begin to realize that it isn’t happening. It is being done. And you are not safe. You have never been safe. You were born with a bulls-eye on your back. All you have ever been is lucky.
The Female Gaze: SO MUCH PRETTY by Cara Hoffman - review Cara Hoffman’s really amazing, really important novel So Much Pretty at The Female Gaze this month.  (via sssssophie)

(via feministquotes)

May 27, 2013 • 15 notes
“They sure didn`t ask what color your skin is or where you’re from before they laid down their life for you. It shouldn`t matter where they’re from or what their origin is if they are willing to fight for our country.God Bless them ALL.” - Sue Black

“They sure didn`t ask what color your skin is or where you’re from before they laid down their life for you. It shouldn`t matter where they’re from or what their origin is if they are willing to fight for our country.God Bless them ALL.” - Sue Black