In my toodling around on the internet today, I came across two different videos talking about the same thing, racism in the US. The first is pretty serious, and contains a lot of charts and statistics, which the second is deliberately irreverent and contains a lot of swearing. But I'd encourage you to watch them both. Speaking for myself, I know ( Read more... )

The US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a Constitutional right, WHEW.

and,

President Obama eulogizes Charleston pastor Clementa Pinckney, and closes by singing "Amazing Grace."

Here is the full version of Obama's speech, which I will watch tomorrow, because even the clip in the Guardian article brought me to tears.

I shared this ( Read more... )

I've used the phrases "people of color" and "women of color" for a while now, because it feels more inclusive, and less like I'm labeling a person for them.*

Today, I learned the origin of that phrase. Thank you, Internet: this is one of those things that I probably should've have known earlier, but I didn't, but now I do.

Click to view

And then, here is a ( Read more... )

Did you know there is a GoFundMe for Michael Brown, to help his family cover the costs of seeking justice for his murder?

Did you know that there is also a GoFundMe for Darren Wilson, the police officer who allegedly murdered Brown?

As of this post, Michael Brown's family have raised $140,000 in eight days:


( Read more... )

(Please don't think that because I'm not blogging about northern Iraq, or Palestine, or any other particular bad-news story, that those things are not on my mind. This is me picking how to specifically depress you tonight.)

Exiled Tibetan monks join Ferguson protestors to support justice for Mike Brown (HuffPo)
A group of monks flew from India to ( Read more... )

(I believe in balancing the hard stuff with the fluff, myself.)

Things to Stop Being Distracted by When a Black Person Gets Murdered by the PoliceThis essay is so, so important, dear readers. I was looking for a particularly choice passage to excerpt, but, really, you really should read the whole thing. Mainstream media is not good at covering ( Read more... )

'His exact words were, "Get the f--k on the sidewalk."'

Guys, are you following what's going down in Ferguson, Missouri? Pro-tip: any news report that leads with "Protestors clashed with police today..." is a not a news report you should trust. That article up there is a pretty good introduction. I've been re-tweeting tonight's violence as well: ( Read more... )

Oh that's right, the Oscars were last night. I read up on the results this afternoon, and I'm disappointed that ARGO took best picture, but on the other hand I did enjoy the film while I was watching it. (It was just after I walked out of the theatre, and started thinking, that I decided I didn't like it so well.) (My friend just offered this ( Read more... )

This is something you should probably know about. I agree with the second article, below, that it seems a lot like saber rattling, but they've got some pretty big sabers going on, and there is a chance things could get ... interesting.

Rising animosity between Iraqis and Kurds raises risk of war, from The Independent.

Iraq's Kurds: We don't want ( Read more... )

Hola, chicos. The blog took a break yesterday, because the blogger was more than usually tired, and decided self-care was more important, especially when such self-care involved going to bed ( Read more... )