your defense of immigrants is fucking colonialist

read this to avoid some rookie mistakes

learn about intersectionality

The Bridge to Texangeles

This past week, Donald Trump showed his ass. So did white liberals. You know, the ones swathing themselves in American flags and holding pictures of dead Syrian children. For a moment I thought the alt-right had gone so far right it was left again, because some of the white liberalism I witnessed at #NoWallNoBan actions this weekend was downright imperialist in the name of immigration. 

“Yo!” you protest, “Stop criticizing the people that are joining the movement! They should be rewarded with freshly baked cookies and golden safety pins for their allyship!”. To which I reply, without criticism, the only movement that these white liberals are joining is the United States’ movement to colonize the globe. People need to understand what they’re fighting, and it is unfortunately abundantly clear they will never reach this understanding without my salty first generation immigrant opinions ruining their day, nor the voice of other…

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The Language of Dude Feminism

The sort of language used to assert men’s dominance over women has a pretty recognizable pattern across the cultural landscape. Men, we are told, are in charge of things because they have something women (supposedly) lack: physical strength, honor, higher cognitive facilities, or the mystique of the male organ itself. Women, sadly “lacking” these qualities, need to be “protected” from the all-consuming lusts of strange men.

This can be spun as noble chivalry, brutal domination, or a playful battle of the sexes, but at the root it’s the same: women are denied the freedoms that men take as a God-given right, assigned subordinate status, and coerced into performative gender roles.

In this dialectic, men’s protective abilities and ravaging urges come from the same place and are both aimed squarely at women. Language, of course, did not create the patriarchy, but language is a powerful method of inscribing the possible, shaping…

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Kinderpooiers: dè aanpak

Saskia Van Nieuwenhove

Omdat ik me straks als een soortement criminele figuur moet verantwoorden in Brussel. En ja, daardoor ben ik al enkele weken verlamd en diep gekwetst.

Het is 1996. Jawel, 20 jaar geleden. Voor de allereerste keer verschijnt het woord loverboy in een Nederlandse krant.
Beleidsmakers hoorden het in Keulen donderen.
Jongens en mannen die met cadeautjes kwetsbare meisjes versieren, hen verliefd maken en dan doorverkopen aan andere mannen.

Het duurde nog enkele jaren voor de ernst doordrong. Er werd een rapporteur aangesteld en die bracht in 2002 een eerste rapport voor Den Haag.
Nog steeds wist jeugdzorg niet wat ze nu juist moesten doen met dergelijke slachtoffers. Nog steeds liepen ze weg na een plaatsing in een instelling, zochten ze terug contact met de dader en konden die smeerlappen niet worden geklist door justitie.

Er werd een nieuwe rapporteur opgezet. Weer een onderzoek, weer het fenomeen in kaart brengen.
Deze…

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On Triggers: Uncomfortable Vs. Unsafe

Hands In The Dirt

After I had been sick for a few months, something started happening. I started losing friends. I’m not talking about friends who I saw less– I’m talking about friends who stopped talking to me because I continued to be sick. One person said it was because my health issues triggered her anxiety. Not how I handled my health issues, just their existence. Another said that health angst was a trigger for her (yes, the word angst).

Engagement-21 It’s easy to lose connections when you’re sick!

Trigger can be a useful word. It is meant to describe an otherwise harmless situation that brings up traumatic events. It does not mean uncomfortable, I don’t like it, or I have to think about hard things. We’re talking trauma. The stuff where we fear for our very selves. It is important for trauma survivours to be able to articulate why a seemingly harmless smell or taste or…

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Memorial Day Letter from a Vietnam Vet

Wonders of Pakistan

Agent Orange

AP PHOTOBill Perry, left, a disabled American veteran from Levittown, Pa. , kisses Nguyen Thi Hong, from Bien Hoa, Vietnam, as she is pushed in a wheelchair followed by Nguyen Van Quy, right, from Thai Binh, Vietnam, also wheelchair bound, as they arrive in New York, Monday June 18, 2007. Nguyen Thi Hong and Nguyen Van Quy are Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, a spraying chemical used during the Vietnam war. Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange received little encouragement from a federal appeals panel when they sought to reinstate their claim that U.S. companies committed war crimes by making the toxic chemical defoliant available for use in the Vietnam War.

“People need to see what war really is, not the Hollywood version”

by Mike Whitney


Charlie Ehlen is a former Marine now living in Glenmora, Louisiana


Originally,Memorial Day was created to honor Union troops who had died…

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war peace activism