Songs They Won't Play On The Radio

theimaginaryhackathon:

I absolutely love Growington, a platform for swapping homegrown vegetables. Now, it was only launched a few months ago but quite a few people are using it (in the Greater London area, anyway.) I really hope it takes off. I agree with the Growington when they say our food system is broken. But I also have a vague feeling that this sort of network is a glimpse into a not-so-distant future. 

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This post is brilliant, and ties into some thoughts I scribbled down the other night about the future of work and need to tie into a proper post when I am not packing for an intercontinental flight.

rebelrebelbatcat:

jaded16india:

I know that you are preoccupied (no pun intended) with ‘saving’ slum dwellers, with ‘saving’ poor third world women workers — yes that’s who they are in your eyes, nothing more, nothing less — and with the new fad of “occupying” things, you just want to #occupy mumbaislums; let’s just pause to think how bad an idea this is. I was at the meeting when people of the #occupymumbai movement (a few mumbaiites and many westerners) devised the plan to ABANDON SWEATSHOP LABOUR!11!11 by persuading women in the Dharavi slums to stop working, because such imperialist exploitation should come to an end now!11!!

I was only present at your meeting because I work with a collective that works with the workers you are trying to ‘save’. It was pathetic to see you go on and on about how the leather industry from the Dharavi slums is booming and that most of it is exploitative sweatshop labour, because the point isn’t shutting down businesses, it is to fight for wages that will help the workers to earn more than just subsistence money. Leaving jobs is not their option, boycotting the products they manufacture will just put them out of work. 

Relegating all discourse around slums to be one of violence, exploitation, abuse is nothing but a form of erasure, of painfully re-drawing, re-framing these workers in solely the victim narrative. Yes, these are their realities. So are networks and connections among most women workers, them organising and forming a trade union, links between the main hub of Mumbai slums (i.e. Dharavi) to other slums. Sure, they don’t have a manifesto or pamplets, don’t even try to pretend their work is worth any less than what it is — a powerful network of labourers all across Mumbai, don’t you see, they are already ‘saving’ themselves? If you want to help, go to *their* meetings, don’t invite a member of the English-speaking collective working with these women to be your bridge to them. Engage with them, they have so much to say and teach you. 

 I know a few of you read this blog, this open letter isn’t to snide or snark at you. I hope you will listen and engage wisely.

You know who I am.  

Reposting because THIS IS REAL and needs to be listened to. This is what I’m talking about when I’m talking about how the Occupy movement needs to engage with, respect and not bulldoze over already-existing community organizing and then act like they’re reinventing the fucking wheel (ESPECIALLY when there is a dynamic wrt privilege in the members of the Occupy movement vs. relative lack of privilege in the communities they’re attempting to address).

(via guerrillamamamedicine)

That awkward moment when you’re explaining to your cat that tomorrow you’re leaving the country for three weeks and you’re not sure if he understands you.

ktempest:

karnythia:

soydulcedeleche:

note-a-bear:

soydulcedeleche:

and can i LOL again at people TRULY and seriously tryina argue that words do NOT change meaning from one context/code to another? that whatever white folks said it means, is what it is, regardless of whether its standard american english or AAVE or whatever else?

i mean…are ya srsly srs?

srsly?

no…

srsly? lol

real talk tho: Growing up I heard heiffa, trifling heffa, and all manner of variation. And I can hardly think of a situation where it was intended as a reflection on someone’s weight. Like, I think I can maybe sorta understand where people are coming from, on a very technical level but….

uh…I only ever heard white people use any variation of “cow” as a dig on someone’s weight. I always heard heiffa/heffa used more like….I dunno, I suppose “fool” or “asshole” replacement, if that makes sense.

wooorrrd. to this day i have YET to hear somebody who speaks AAVE and actually uses the term “heiffa” use it to refer to size or weight in any way…at all. havent seen it yet. for real. i cannot think of one single instance. and im goin on 3 decades on this planet, living among hood POC. :|

If someone asks me not to call them heffa I don’t but for us it has always been a term of endearment & a way to say someone is on that bullshit. The idea that black POC wouldn’t have their own inner community language with different meaning is rooted in the American obsession with being monolingual.

I don’t get how that even works in an American context seeing that even white folks have all kinds of different ways of talking and code switching, though they might not call it that. Do people who argue this never leave their home state? Having lived in 5 now, I notice significant differences in the way words are used based on region. Not even just talking about dialect.

I kinda get the impression a lot of them don’t, actually. I don’t know how representative a sample my sociolinguistics students at UI were with respect to the rest of the country, but code switching was a GIANT MYSTERY OF THE UNIVERSE to easily half the white midwestern kids I taught. Which still confused me, because it’s not as if the midwest has no dialects but the majority one! 

You were in Iowa long enough to notice some of the dialect features — do you remember how long it took you to adapt? You’re from NY originally, right?

(Source: bad-dominicana)