anagram of brat

I have to interrupt the usual stream of silliness and bitching, y'all. It's been a long ass while since something on the news has fucked with me this badly and I'm having all kinds of FEELINGS about it, which is one in a bunch of reasons why I'm not dead asleep right now.

This is going to get long and nasty and thorny and opinionated, and I highly suspect some folk are going to squirm/be triggered/get pissed at me reading it. I'm not cutting it. I'm only barely feeling considerate enough to place a trigger warning in the title. Deal. Or scroll.

So let's talk about this kid for a minute:



This is 17 year old Trayvon Martin. He was shot and killed in Florida on February 26 while walking to a 7-11 to get some candy for his brother. Why? According to the man that shot him, "he looked suspicious." ...Uh huh. I'm totally paraphrasing, by the way, his actual words were far more... chilling is the wrong word, but it's all I've got. No I'm not quoting them, google it.

Earlier this evening police released 911 audio of eight calls made at the time of the shooting. After reading the description of their contents here, I've opted to not listen. I know I wouldn't be able to handle it, and I'm having enough trouble sleeping this evening. The description is enough to have me in some ugly tears.

I wouldn't say there is enough coverage of this out there by way of Twitter, blogs and the news, because there isn't, and frankly, there never is when a kid of color dies. (Pretty confident a lot of you are hearing about this for the first time via this post.) However, most of what I could say about this has been said by people far better at this whole expressing outrage and grief on the internet than I am. The #TrayvonMartin hashtag on twitter pretty much covers it, as well as completely breaks my heart six ways from Sunday.

I will say this though. Between this case, this kid's picture (he don't look like anybody's 17, I'm sorry), all the points people have brought up about the (non)value of black boys in our supposedly post-racial society, looking at the way my sisters and friends of color raise their kids, especially their sons, and all the things I hated but completely understood about how my ex used to behave as a large black man in a 90% white public? I think I'm finally okay with not having children in this lifetime, because this is all shit I would have to deal with and worry about every single day as a Black mother, and y'all... I can't even. I don't know how some of you deal with this and still manage to let your boys out of your sight to live their lives, knowing that they run the VERY FUCKING REAL risk of having their LIVES ENDED for having the audacity to walk down a street in a way that upset someone paler than they are, and 9 times out of 10, said pale person wouldn't catch jack shit for it. Because this isn't an isolated incident, y'all. I wish it was, but this shit's been happening almost every day since most of us brown folk got dragged here in chains. And you know what? It's pretty fucking rough just dealing with that day in and day out, just knowing if you slip up and take a shortcut through the wrong town at the wrong time,* it'll cost you in at best harassment, at worst grievous bodily harm, possibly including death. All because you happen to be somewhat more sun-resistant than Freckle McBlonderson over there. And then add the fact that you have to worry about your kids as well? Ffffffffuuuuuuucccccccck.

Y'all who never have to worry about this shit as you raise your kids? Give some serious fervent thanks to whatever power you hold dear that you don't, cause it sucks. And I'm not going to lie, tonight I resent your privilege in this department more than a little bit. Nope, no exceptions, sorry, I'm not writing any Black Friend Passes today and just as a heads up, the window may remain closed at least through the weekend. Too upset, and fuck you if you don't get why.

I'm not at all optimistic about there being any kind of positive outcome in this case, and it is almost a moot point because even if key people managed to get their collective heads out of their asses and some kind of legal justice was served, Trayvon is still horribly, senselessly dead. The media and the Internet being what they are, his death won't necessarily spark nearly enough outrage to really change anything either because in order to get people outside of the niche that is, say, #blacktwitter to give a shit about black boys dying, some white guys have to make a video about it and make it go viral. Bonus if they then get busted for drug use and public masturbation. That's what makes people pay attention. One sweet-faced teenager just getting his brother some candy and getting shot for his trouble? Well like I sad, Trayvon died on the 26th of February. Why did it take twenty damn days for this to get widespread press? Shit.

All I want to do right now is hug the stuffing out of my nephews and tell them I love them. And cry buckets that it's still so fucked up out there that shit like this can still happen and no one'll say boo, and even if someone does? deaf ears.

Wellp. Until next time, folks. Sadly, there will be one.



* seriously, look up "sundown towns" and "The Green Book" sometime. You'll learn stuff.

I didn't bother blacking out either of my sites - I get so little traffic to either that it would be about as useful as an OccupyPainfullyLiberalCollegeTown protest around here. But I am watching the internet today with a fair amount of interest.

One thing that's caught my attention is a surprising amount of backlash against Wikipedia. Seriously, go check out the #wtfwikipedia tag. Lots of kids bitching about not being able to get their homework done, and as a friend of mine pointed out, the closer the deadline, the more capital letters and vitriol used.

This amuses me for many reasons. a) you DO have other resources other than wikipedia for research. Pick up a book, maybe. Support your local library. Do an actual google search. It's not the end of the world. b) This SOPA/PIPA issue is waaaaaaay more important than your individual term paper, and if either go through you may lose Wikipedia for more than just today. WHAT WILL YOU DO THEN?! c) Wikipedia is still up in all languages other than English. So if you're not a "THIS IS AMERICA - SPEAK ENGLISH AND ONLY ENGLISH OR GTFO" sort of asshole and have the ability, either through learning at home or through language education, to read in another language, you can still get your shit done.

Sigh. People are dumb, y'all.

Anyway. Call your congresspeople (wikipedia has a little form where you punch in your zip code and it gives you a list), or if you're lazy and don't like the phone, sign the Google petition. Meanwhile I may have to cope with the lack of reddit today by actually getting something productive done. Horror of horrors.

Not what I wanted to have to hear about in my twitter feed today. Boosting the signal to all my Smithies cause this shit isn't okay.

http://gneissguy.tumblr.com/post/4539855184/eve-before-battle
http://gneissguy.tumblr.com/post/4555557924/of-ultimatums-at-smith-college-and-decisions-to-be-made

TL;DR version: Smith Admissions told a male-identified transgender student they could not host prospective students. I really have no words other than

This is gonna be one of those entries where I lose friends on all sides of the spectrum. SO BE IT.

( RANTING AHOY. Considering it's regarding the PA Dickwolves drama, triggery like whoa )

ETA: non friend commentary screened. I'm not interested in outside wankery on this.

ETA2: ehh never mind i just locked the post from further comments. I realize thats probably going to piss folk off moar and violates my usual policy of encouraging people to tell me when i'm wrong, but upon thinking about it, i realize i don't have my usual level of trollface and popcorn interest in seeing which of my friends are on what side (i'm pretty sure i know where y'all stand by now) and having you cockfight it out. Also, this is the blue moon occasion where i'm off the fence i usually ride like a prize stallion and am pretty solid in how i feel about it. For whatever its worth, it seems like a flounce/chickenshit/fuck you move even to me, lol. But whatever. Its not like if you really want to talk to me about this you don't know where and how to get a hold of me. I just dont want to do it here. Interpret that as you will, i suppose.

Guys, The Guild is TERRIBLE. I just tried to watch it on Netflix with cell23, and man I've never cringed so much in 45 minutes before now and I think I need a double shot of vodka to deal with that mess. Seriously, any liking/respect for Felicia Day I had going from Dr. Horrible has been thoroughly canceled out in the space of an hour. "Date my avatar" was cute, but everything else out of this project makes me twitch on some visceral "what is wrong with you people" level.

Yeah, I'm done.

Fuck your so called "delicious cake."

a) the cake is and always was a goddamn LIE. Tired old meme or not, in this case it applies. Any cake there was to be had was mine and if anyone ran away with it giggling, it was you.

b) I don't need your goddamn vegan gluten free treehugging hippie cake, so roll it up, shove it up your ass and light it on fire. My dollar ninety nine betty crocker shit tastes so much better it's not even funny. But I'm sure that self-righteous smugma (not a typo) you and the others bukakked all over it by way of frosting tastes like... something.

c) "delicious cake" is another term for severely underage jailbait. Research your metaphors before using them.

Thank you, move along.

And no, I'm not explaining, so don't ask. No exceptions.

Pediatricians call for a choke-proof hot dog

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Russian ice dance tribute to Aborigines offensive to Aborigines




Okay I will say one thing.... red shorts?

ETA: wow the whole idea of this particular contest is lultatically fail.