Good news:
RogerMichael Moore has volunteered to pay Bree Newsome’s bail. Video of Bree Newsome removing the Confererate flag from the State House here
(via adelindschade)
On the early morning of June 27, activists in South Carolina gathered to take down the confederate flag flying above the Capitol before the funerals for 3 of the victims of the Charleston massacre begin. There is also supposed to be a “defend the flag” action later today.
A black woman identified as Bree climbed the flag pole and took the flag down herself. She was arrested shortly after climbing back down with the flag.
Check fergusonaction on twitter for more updates.
This is such an excellent direct action. The flag is back up now, but forcing the police to choose to defend it, and the state to choose to put it back up = brilliant.
Her name is Bree Newsome, and in a statement, she said, “Deciding to do what the SC Legislature has thus far neglected to do, [a group of concerned citizens] took down the symbol of white supremacy that inspired the massacre, continued to fly at full mast in defiance of South Carolina’s grief, and flew in defiance of everyone working to actualize a more equitable Carolinian future.”
She was arrested along with another person. Both of them are charged with defacing a monument, which carries three years in jail and a $5000 fine.
(See this article from Democracy Now, which also notes that the two state employees whose job it was to put the flag up again are African-American.)
(via princehal9000)
Your Hero of the Day: Bree Newsome just took down the Confederate flag this morning. [x]
(via academicfeminist)
#without katara the world would have literally fucking ended wtf
I still kinda geek a lil when she stops the rain
Katara is so important, you guys.
I see a lot of criticism going around about how Katara was Aang’s “prize” at the end of the series, that she lost importance in Korra once she popped out an Airbender baby and just generally didn’t have agency but I don’t gel with that.
How about we look for a moment at what Katara is, who Katara is, what she’s done.
This flawless queen:
- Lost deeply at a young age in the war that was all she had ever known, and turned that loss into an abiding empathy and determination to care for those who were losing around her.
- Found and praticed her own power with a brother telling her she was strange for doing it, and no prospect of anyone to ever teach her how to do it well.
- Captured the heart of an ancient spirit who had been born and loved a thousand times and a thousand mortals with the blue of her eyes and the strength of her spirit.
- Left her own home, desecrated by the army that had dominated her life, her people, determined to chase that evil down and steal her brand-new friend back from it with nothing but a canoe and her untrained power.
- Fought The Man and earned his respect for her spirit and her potential by being that good even without formal training.
- RESURRECTED THE GOD OF HER WORLD.
- Found within herself a great and terrible power, and even though power was something she had sought all her life, put it aside not to be used because it was not a power that brought peace.
- Looked the mother’s murderer in the eye, put him at the knife’s edge of death, and judged him not worth the stain on her soul or her mothers’ memory.
- Faced the Fire Nation princess, she who would be kinslayer, the only Fire Nation soldier ever to breach the walls of Ba Sing Se, and defeated her on her own ground.
- Returned to her home, restored her home, and ensured no children of her culture would ever again find themselves with a great and beautiful power, and no hope of ever learning to wield it.
- Played one of the most essential roles in ending the war that was all she had ever known since the day she was born.
- The wandering god of her world, the nomad from a culture of detachment, pledged himself to her and gave HER strong, good children. For fuck’s sake, why do so many people try to turn motherhood into an abdication of agency? As if having a child is something a woman does for the man who fathers the child, never a want a man assists a woman in achieving? And Katara secured a mortal god for the father of her children. Girl. Girl. GEDDIT.
Conclusion: Katara is better than us all. Let us kneel and give praise.
I would also like to add that she was the one who secured the throne for Firelord Zuko—she was a child so insignificant, the Fire Nation’s soldiers didn’t even care about killing her, and yet she was the one who decided the Fire Nation’s next ruler. He directly owes his crown to her.
(via starwarsisgay)
i’ll be sipping my tea over here
People with hijabs make me uncomfortable.
(via adelindschade)
You heard me. You wanna take Tara out of here against her will? You gotta come through me.
This moment is one of my favorite moments in the entire series. Because poor Tara’s face. When buffy says “take her” she just sighs and looks down because after a life time of abuse, she thinks she’s worthless, she thinks no one wants her, she’s not shocked. She’s not like “wtf buffy”. Most people would be shocked, they would react upset that they’d been given away. But Tara’s just like “of course these great people don’t want me, I’m nothing, and I betrayed their trust.”
And then Buffy tells her dad to fuck off. And for the first time since her mother died someone loves her and she can actually see that love. Buffy’s not a good friend, yet. Buffy doesn’t “get” Tara, she finds her odd. But Buffy knows Willow loves her, and that is good enough for her. She also is there to protect the innocent. And Tara is the innocent. Buffy is ALL about WOMEN who protect other women and who stand together against men. Buffy is all about giving agency to not just one girl, but to all. Here, Buffy is expanding her power to Tara, she is protecting Tara from her father who took Tara’ will. She’s giving Tara a chance at life and to be her own person.
This moment summarizes the entirety of Buffy better then any other quote or scene.
(via bleedingwillow96)
“sexuality is a choice”
“women wouldn’t get raped if they didn’t wear revealing clothes”
“there are only two genders”
“i’m not trying to be sexist/racist, but..”
“a/bi/pansexuality isn’t real”
“gay people shouldn’t have children”
“i don’t want to be friends with a gay person, they could hit on me”
“you can’t identify with the gender you want to be, only the one you were born with”
(Source: anglaziegler, via bleedingwillow96)
