About online activism, blogging, and “slaktivism.”
ragn:
- Why can’t you be both a productive activist out in the “real world” and a blogger?
Answer: You can. And people do. Don’t just assume someone with an active internet presence doesn’t do anything for causes or communities they care about. In fact, I started my own non profit youth program and most of my work behind the scenes requires me to be on the internet.
- The internet can be real and make things happen.
Complaining and passing around internet petitions sometimes looks and feels futile, but just think about how corporations or other groups have responded when they saw support and backlash on the internet? It gets stuff done. And, see next bullet:
- A huge part of being a good activist is educating yourself.
The great thing about the internet is it’s endless information. If there weren’t angry bloggers people couldn’t read their angry blogs and make up their minds about the issues talked about.
- Lastly, some people have disabilities.
Those disabilities whether visible or not can make being an online activist one of the best fits for people to be actively helping through teaching others, educating themselves or petitions, fundraisers, emailing important people, ect. I can’t speak a lot about this as someone who is pretty ablebodied and neurotypical but I’ll leave you with that.yes yes yes yes yes!!!!
Petition: Tell AMC, Regal Cinemas, and other major movie companies to incorporate captions into all movie showings!
Here’s the petition I said I would start to try to get movie theaters to respect the needs of folks with hearing deficits. Captions are necessary for many people who have hearing loss to understand what is going on in films. There’s no reason why there can’t be captions to help them out. I’m going for 100,000 here, and I think that if everyone who reads my tumblr promotes the petition to at least one person, we can make that goal. Please help me make that happen!
This is funny because most movie theaters have at least one theater that has captions running backwards at the back of the theater, allowing the hearing impaired to use a mirror to read the captions without impedeng the experience of other moviegoers
make sure that what you’re petitioning for doesn’t already exist. otherwise you’re going to look like an asshole.
Wow… that sounds like an unnecessarily horrible way to watch a movie.
why the hell would you want to be lookking at a mirror when you’re supposed to be watching a movie
I used to work at an AMC and I can vouch for this. Basically, people who were hearing impaired had to wear these stupid glasses on their face that reflected the backwards captions from the back of the theatre. I wore one once out of curiosity and it was nothing but a fucking headache. Literally.
It’s possible to run close-captioned movies without completely stripping away the dignity and convenience of those with disabilities. As for ”impending the experience of the other movie-goers”…? That’s a load of horseshit.
OH NO I CAN’T DEAL WITH WORDS ON A SCREEN
Operas have been doing superscript where they just shoot a projector with the translation on a smaller screen directly above the stage so people can understand the lyrics. It’s not all that hard.
Supertitles at operas are my favorite things. <3
Mirrored subtitles would be enormously more distracting then correct direction ones. I’ll start spending mental energy to read them (I mean really mirroring text does not obscure it that much) and, you know, end up super distracted.
Also I mean like any sort of thing that requires glasses is not going to work for someone who, you know, already needs glasses for other things.
this still needs lots of signatures, please sign/pass it around if you can.
Disability Blog Carnival # 79: Disability and Occupy
I’m delighted to be hosting the seventy-ninth Disability Blog Carnival. I chose the theme of Occupy (as in Occupy Wall Street/#ows) for this edition. I have to say that I’m proud of this post. It makes it abundantly clear what we have to teach each other and ourselves, and what we have to learn.
I posed a lot of questions for people to respond to for this carnival. However, the majority of the posts in this edition were written before my call for entries, indicating that Occupy is on the minds of many who blog about disability already. […]
I’m in twice!
Rocking (and Flapping) at a 1000 Revolutions a Minute is definitely one of my favorite posts on disability and Occupy. It is a must read! This incredibly powerful, liberating post by Savannah Logsdon-Breakstone of Cracked Mirror in Shalott includes a captioned video Savannah took of herself at an Occupy DC event, off by herself, rocking, and how doing that contradicts the harmful messages she’s been subject to based on others’ responses to her autism:
The week before I sat in the park and rocked, feeling my defiance, I spent several nights wishing I didn’t exist. I knew all the things I talk about here intellectually, but that base part of me is still filled with the remembered abuse of my past. The most prevalent are those that were excused at the time as treatment while speaking words describing me as a burden and my being as a barrier.
[…]
In her post, Decolonizing Our Voices, Savannah Logsdon-Breakstone of Cracked Mirror in Shalott describes the parallels she sees between the 99 percent movement and her activism against oppression of people with autism. In fact, she published this post on Autistics Speaking Day, an annual event to counteract the messages of pity and misinformation coming from certain autism organizations (which are run by people without autism).
After some thought, I’ve decided that there’s too much of a cross over for me in the work of Decolonizing Wall Street and of our voices as Autistics to not write this post today. While people in general are seeing their demands of their political representatives co-opted or diverted by corporations, Autistics routinely have our voices co-opted by our allies and diverted by large ‘non’-profits such as Autism Speaks.
I posted about how Autistics prefer not to do person first in the comments but the blog owner hasn’t corrected or un-moderated it yet? But I expect that they will, as I know them from Occupy at Home stuff.
in a system that wants you dead
the system wishes you had never been born
and you’re fucking alive
and you’re talking
and you’re teaching
and you’re learning
and you’re loving
you waking up each morning IS doing something” A (theshortcunt)
(Source: iragray)
[CW: police brutality? thuggery at least.
MY FRIENDS ARE BEING HELD IN THE BACK OF A POLICE WAGON, SWEATING AND BEGGING FOR WATER. THE POLICE ARE REFUSING TO TURN ON THE AIR OR PROVIDE THEM WITH WATER. A MAN HAS A SERIOUS HEAD WOUND AND NEEDS IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION. I QUOTE “HIS FINGERS ARE TURNING BLUE AND THEY’RE LAUGHING AT US”.
Do not let the nypd get away with this.
SIGNAL FUCKING BOOST. NOW.
Land of the free, huh
Why "R[-word]" is a Hate Crime [Mentions the R-word]
It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I get confronted with a very ugly word.
“Retard”
It’s used a slang, as an insult. People know that it’s offensive, but they still use it. They seem to think “oh, it’s slang, it’s just a word, it doesn’t matter.” But you see, it does matter. Just because there isn’t a person with intellectual disabilities there, or apparent, doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. Because connotations matter. The thought behind the word, it matters.
Let me show you how.
Jennifer was threatened with deportation after her mother and she were pulled over in a routine traffic stop in Palm Beach county, where she lives with her younger siblings — who are U.S. citizens with health problems that require Jennifer’s ongoing care and attention. Immigration officials let Jennifer’s mother go because she was recently able to attain resident status that Jennifer could not be included in because she had “aged out” of the visa process (a painful experience that throws many immigrant youth into legal limbo when they turn 21).
Now, Jennifer’s family and legal counsel are calling out for help after she was taken into DHS/ICE custody and threatened with the possibility of deportation away from her mother, siblings, and future in this country.
Like DREAMer Manuel Guerra, Jennifer should not be a priority for deportation under the new ICE/DHS guidelines. Instead, she should be granted a type of status that allows her to contribute to the country she calls home. Jennifer has lived in the U.S. for a decade and completed high school through a GED program in order to help her mother and siblings.
In fact, Jennifer’s deportation would be doubly devastating — not only would it cut her dreams and future plans short, it would rip her away from a family that depends on her care. Jennifer’s younger sister, Ashley, a 5-year-old U.S. citizen, has been diagnosed with a blood clot, requiring her to be in observation for 3 months in the hospital, and to wear a special “boot” to get around. Her brother, also a citizen, appears to be losing his vision. Jennifer’s mother has been diagnosed with a tumor in her knee, which required knee reconstruction. On top of all of this, Jennifer and her mother have NO criminal record and have been paying taxes for more than 8 years.
”[petition] Tell ICE: Don’t deport Florida DREAMer Jennifer Lopez away from her family!
please sign and/or pass this around if you can. thank you.
(via numol)Sponsor a Coming Out Bus - $9 | Dream Activist
please donate and/or pass this around if you can. EDIT: i know not a lot of people can afford this — it’s ok if you can’t, because that’s beyond your control. i don’t wanna shame anyone who can’t afford it and i’m sorry if i am.
from the email i got about this:
All across the country things are heating up in the effort to finally end Secure Communities. Tomorrow, in Los Angeles five undocumented youth will come out in front of ICE with a simple demand; a speedy end to the failed Secure Communities program. One of the students coming out is Ruben Barrera, Ruben’s older brother Isaac was arrested a week ago for a broken head-light. Because of Secure Communities the typical traffic stop turned into a couple days in jail, an interview with ICE and an ICE hold.
We Need Your Help with Tomorrow’s Rally: Sponsor a Rider
Isaac would have been detained by ICE and placed into removal proceedings had it not been for the quick work and thinking of his community. Now a week later Isaac’s brother Ruben will take a stand and he invites you to join him.
“I am taking action on Wednesday because I know first hand what it is like to almost lose a family member to Secure Communities. I know Isaac is not in jail right now because he had an entire community fighting for him. I also know, while we were able to save him, hundreds of other people were deported that same day. I am coming out on Wednesday in front of ICE because I want everyone to know that the community is here and that we will fight as long as it takes to stop this program. Will you join me?”
Join Ruben and the four other students by sponsoring a rider to the action.
Thank you for your support, if you can’t join us in person or sponsor a rider then please follow the action on livestream. We’ll begin airing at 12:00 noon PST.
Thank you,
Mohammad Abdollahi
All the work we do is volunteer run, consider making a donation to support us
co-founder of DreamActivist.org
One Thursday last month, during the lunch hour at H.D. Woodson Senior High School, half a dozen teenage boys have gathered to eat pizza and talk about hollering at women. “From where I come from, you holler at a girl,” one student tells the group. “A girl can’t be too upset when a guy is paying attention to her.” “It depends on the type of girl and whether she has respect for herself,” another says. “Some girls will say, stop. But they like it, for real.” “If she’s wearing short shorts, booty shorts, short skirt, with the thong showing, she wants it,” another guy says. “Can’t blame it on the boy. She knows what she’s doing.
“But what if it’s hot out?” This is Kedrick Griffin. He’s here to play the 37-year-old devil’s advocate on a subject that’s generally considered normal behavior for a teenage boy in the District of Columbia. This exercise has come almost at the end of a year-long District program called the “Men of Strength” club—MOST Club, for short. The same pattern is repeated with groups of boys in public middle and high schools across the District: Come for the pizza, stay for the deconstructions of masculinity.
I can’t even begin to express how much I love this.
it is so so so important that people are doing this. i’m grateful to all programs like this.
I’m so glad this is happening
(Source: professorpinka)
25,000 Children About to Lose Cash Assistance
especially for michiganders…
(via radicallyhottoff)
image in text reads:
(via numol)Find your legislators’ name & phone number on these websites:
http://house.michigan.gov/
&
http://senate.michigan.gov/
If you need help or don’t have computer access call Debra Eaton in the church office, 313-965-5422.
Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, and her organization, Women on Waves, sail a ship around the world to countries where abortion is illegal. Using a hotline for communication, the activists pick up women at the port and transport them twelve miles offshore, just outside of domestic waters, where doctors on board can administer safe and legal medical abortions at sea. Their actions shock the church, infuriate the government, exhilarate the media, and provoke mass controversy and debate among the voting population, but they break no law.
They might, they hope, instead serve to save lives.
More information here
THIS IS THE COOLEST ACTIVISM EVER.
The Hurt
Susan B Anthony avoided real discourse with Ida B Wells and most feminists pretend they don’t know it happened
Angela Davis combined her experiences with feminism and the silent racism of yes Gloria Steinem with her education and her experience of sexism to write Women Race and Class , so many women name check the book and then drool kind of disgustingly and offensively over Steinhem
Mary Daly flat out avoided Audre Lourde and her book is still held up as radical godsend
Women OF color bloggers challenge white passive racism and sexism and less than five years later people send out book proposals like they don’t exist and must be found
This isn’t about the Help.
This isn’t even about the power.
Yes white women have in a SPECIFIC location to erase , validate or coopt women of color lives at will and have it considered work. Every Nice White Lady , Emily Deschanel manic pixie and touched teacher who did whatever she wanted and left sisters holding the bag, to be content with being sassy and alone crying at the wedding in the credits
That this discussion is hard on what about black women , that black women are the voices heard, that testimonies of REAL love of focus and desire come through.
This the Change
I am EXCITED about this.
I am excited that the Help is getting called out everywhere. I am excited that gossip columnists are uncomfortable about it.
I am EXCITED that Viola Davis is so damn good people are asking why the maid is all she can get?
I am excited that Black women feel empowered to say this is not okay.
I read this and hit my Douglas, my Roger, and seeded pepper all over my bedroom.
If you have never had to beg for shit you were owed to keep your ass from going into default ( ended up doing it anyway)
or watch someone beg for her pay.
or watch someone be reminded how they were ” here to serve”
and know every single one of them looks and sounds like your mom.
And it’s all from well meaning fun liberal white women, who really wanna help
you will never have any idea how cloying and infuriating that is .
You will never get the heart break of that.
OF why spunky alternative white women narratives that feature black women will ALWAYS crawl your skin.
Because it is always about the same thing , of black women’s toil support and HELP in service of white glory.
and how every body needs multiple sources to believe that’s true
That we are what folks kind of sort of get right when they get around to it
be that it endangers our safety ( good being glib about this makes me LAUGH HARD)
our ability to be in the spheres we create
or to get out of bed
You have no unearthly clue what it is like to read someone say
” you are not alone”
” we hear you “
” we GOT this”
to see that in public, in private in the bold light of the sun Black Women can talk about themselves and that we can love and support and affirm each other
There is nothing about THAT , that isn’t awesome
![[If you have come to help me you are wasting your time.But if you have come because you liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together- Aboriginal Activists Group]
azaadiart:
<3](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_liwnkmMcMc1qfzr41o1_400.jpg)
ableism monday round up- social cue shaming
What is this” social cue” shaming I keep talking about, and why is it bad? Why am I enraged at the fact that everyone does it? First, understand that it applies to people with autism (hi!) and the fact that we find social rules difficult to follow because they aren’t written in our brains. That means rwe may do things that others perceive as stupid and clueless. Some examples from my life-
pretending to be a harry potter character when stressed.
not understand rules of conversation and thus talking out of turn.
not recognizing trolls and thus feeding them.
asking blunt questions (so you’re gay, right?) perceived as impolite because I couldn’t ascertain the nature of the appropriateness.
talking about my obsessions.Sometimes I just like to be clued in regarding social rules that I didn’t acquire and so don’t know. Other times I like not to be bothered (if it’s not hurting anyone.) From feminists who claim to care about disabilities, though, I consistently get social cue shamed (shakethecobwebs). And it’s not just a little thing. It doesn’t just hurt my feelings.
It reminds me that you’re smarter and more capable than me. It makes me think i’m a bit less human than you. It makes me feel like a child. It makes me feel like everyone else has got it figured out. Not true. When public events happen and I relate them to harry potter, feminists tend to get all ragey, tell me I am too into harry potter and they wish they could go a day without a reference to a silly children’s story. Yay, police my obsessions more, why don’t you.
Social cue shaming is when you rudely tell me what is appropriate- what normal, allistic people do- without me asking for you to. Its you telling me to get back in line. Be more normal. Quite frankly, it’s dehumanizing but it’s quite common in activism/feminism.
Just something to ponder.
because you allistic douchefucks need a fucking refresher
This this oh goodness this.
