herdirtylittleheart:

If you have a second could you vote for me? You don’t need to sign up or make an account or anything, just clicky. It only takes a moment but I would really appreciate it.

musiqchild007:

onlyblackgirl:

If you feel helpless, there are ways you can channel your rage and sadness in real life.

1. Join a peaceful protest.

They’re happening all around the country tonight, including at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, around 7 p.m. Eastern. 

2. Recognize that Michael Brown’s death was not an isolated incident.

In 2012, more than 300 black people were executed by police, security guards, or vigilantes. In the last month, three other unarmed African-American men—Eric Garner in New York, John Crawford III in Beavercreek, Ohio, and Ezell Ford in Los Angeles—have been killed by police. Those are the ones we know about.

3. Stop saying “This can’t be happening in America.”

I understand the impulse, I really do. But that impulse only comes to those who are insulated and isolated from how America treats poor people and people of color every day. Langston Hughes wrote “America never was America to me” in 1935. If you didn’t quite understand that poem in your junior high or high-school lit classes, read it again, while you think about what’s happening in Ferguson. Let it sink in.

4. STFU about looting.

And call out your friends and family members who won’t. It’s been five days since Michael Brown was murdered. On one of those days, some furious, grieving citizens caused some property damage. Nine have been arrested. Every other day since then, police with more gear than American soldiers going into battle have been occupying the neighborhood where Brown died, attacking peaceful protestors with tear gas and rubber bullets. They’ve tear-gassed a state senator and Al-Jazeera reporters, and arrested an alderman. They’ve demanded that reporters leave the area and arrested two who didn’t move fast enough. “Disproportionate” doesn’t begin to describe it. If you look at all that and still think it’s important to talk about looting for “balance,” you should know that you sound like a racist asshole.

5. Look Around You.

If you live in an urban environment, you’re in a position to bear witness and document inappropriate and abusive police behavior. If you see an African-American neighbor being detained by police, wait to see what happens. Get your phone out. Download the ACLU’s “Police Tape” app, and if you see something that looks off, take a video that will upload directly to their servers, in case your phone is confiscated. Whatever police may tell you, this is your legal right.

6. Make a donation to a civil rights organization like the Southern Poverty Law Center or the ACLU.




7. Educate yourself about the systematic inequality that leads to civil unrest.

The St. Louis American ran a powerful editorial today that fleshes out the history of Ferguson. When you finish reading that, go somewhere quiet for a bit and settle down with Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Case for Reparations.” Don’t stop there.

8. Put pressure on your elected representatives.

Institutional abuse of African-American citizens is happening all over the country, and it demands a federal response. Talk to your senators and congresspeople about enacting policies to protect citizens from their protectors. While you’re at it, maybe suggest they work to limit the amount of military weaponry police can inherit from the armed forces.

9. Listen to your African-American friends when they try to tell you why this hurts.

If you don’t have any African-American friends, you might want to think about why that is.

10. Okay, go ahead and tweet.

And Facebook. Tumblr. Instagram. Vine. Amplify the voices of people on the ground, and help counteract the damaging narratives being propagated by some mainstream media organizations. It’s the very least we can do.

 

For white people wanting to know what they can do to help.

Need all my white friends to get into this.

bdsmgallery:

I had a conversation with a cop last night about how they perceive BDSM practices and what you should do if the cops come calling at your door because a neighbor has complained about ‘Loud Noises’ coming from your home. Here is what he told me:

If a cop comes to your door from…

theroguefeminist:

It’s not about sex – they have porn, they have as much fucking porn as they could possibly ask for

they have billboards and ads and primetime tv shows and hollywood movies and websites free videos magazines they have porn channels porn movies with sexy images of women

they have girls on websites who are paid to webcam with them

there are girls who post sexy pics of themselves online for them

none of this is enough, none of this is, at the bottom of it all, what they want

creepshots specifically says this isn’t enough – they don’t want pics of girls knowingly posing (i.e. giving consent)

they want to violate, they want to rape, they want to own every woman walking down the fucking street

they want your teenager daughter, they want your mom, they want you

when you don’t know it, when you can’t say no, when you’re on the bus, when you’re walking down the street, when you’re at the beach

they get off on your violation, they want more proof that women exist for them and them alone

it’s sexy because it’s embarrassing, humiliating; they say it themselves

this is rape culture in its purest form

because women saying yes on screen, women saying yes to their faces, saying yes on their computers, on their phones is not what they want

that’s not “hot” enough

what’s hot is violating your consent, what’s hot is demeaning you, what’s hot is owning a piece of you against your will

and they won’t stop until we are all pornography