Small Steps #3: Tea Edition

I often forget that there ARE ace/aro celebs out there - that’s how isolated I feel most of the time. We stan Moses Sumney for calling out capitalism as making money on amatonormativity.

Being this way is rlly hard but this post is a blessing. Shout out to all my ace and/or aro peeps living their best lives. That’s the best and most original form of resistance

Since it’s aro awareness week and black history month this seems like a fitting time to shout out and express my appreciation to the black aros making history. 

Moses Sumney

Moses Sumney is perhaps the most public and well known aro person out there. He create a whole album (yes! a whole album) titled Aromanticism that was released in 2017. Not only is the album stunningly gorgeous it features very aro lines such as “Am I vital/ If my heart is idle/ Am I doomed?“ and “If lovelessness is godlessness/ Will you cast me to the wayside?”

He has a deeply anti-opression and anti-capitalist perspective that informs and is informed by his aromanticism. 

“I think that romance is very obviously a political tool, and a capitalist device. I’ve even thought recently, it’s quite good for the economy: the amount people spend on weddings and gifts. Also, [romance] just can’t be separated from a patriarchal structure — like the idea that in a homosexual couple, one person is the masculine, and the other is the feminine. Ultimately we keep going back to those two figures on the wedding cake as the archetype, even for alternative relationships.“ (https://www.thefader.com/2017/09/04/moses-sumney-aromanticism-interview)

Michaela Coel

Michaela Coel is a writer, actor, poet and director. She wrote and stars in Chewing Gum, acted in an episode of Black Mirror and plays the lead character in Black Earth Rising. 

She came out as aro on twitter in 2017. She hasn’t talked about it much since then but it looks like she learned about aromanticism through Moses Sumney. 

Here’s a quote of her talking about seeing his concert. 

“He’s a beautiful artist and I’ve read some interviews of his about romanticism and capitalism, and it was really refreshing to see views that I share but are also very taboo. Just about what exactly is romance, aside from lust and love, what is this other thing and do I really have that? It’s nice that there’s this guy out there who makes those albums.“(https://www.wmagazine.com/story/michaela-coel-black-mirror-season-4-star-trek-space-episode-netflix)

There’s not much aro history out there, but these black aros are paving a path for the future. 

Small Steps #2: Hygiene Edition

Turn off the water while brushing your teeth.

Use a washcloth for washing your face, rather than running the faucet.

In the shower, turn the water off while you wash yourself. Lather, then rinse at the end - more water saved in a shorter amount of bath time.

Rinse, lather, rinse, and you’re done. Little habits aren’t so hard to break, or make; just keep these details in your head, and you’ll remember more and more often when the time comes. That bit of extra effort will be good for your water bill and the environment. The effect of your actions isn’t as small as you think, so let’s make sure it’s a good one.

I’m here for photography, beach days, and my favorite flower. Yes. 

Sunflowers are the perfect flowers

Okay non-European tumblr, I’m gonna explain to you why ‘white’ isn’t as simple here as it is in the rest of the world

- Shades of white in Europe range from ‘freshly fallen snow’ to ‘I am frequently mistaken as being from the Middle East’

- White European is a thing. When you fill out a form, under ethnicity, there are several options for white; white British, white European, white other. Because people make that distinction

- There are Europeans who don’t class their ethnicity as their skin colour, but as their nationality. I have family who don’t think of themselves as white, they just think of themselves as Italian and don’t really give much thought to their skin colour

- People here in Britain always question if darker skinned white Europeans are ‘actually white’. I get it a lot myself. My response is always ‘well I’m not anything else, so obviously I must be’

- Despite being white, a lot of Europeans from Italy, Greece, Spain etc, don’t feel white in the traditional sense. We’re not white like white British people. We’re not white like white Americans. We’re our own white. White British is one thing. White Italian is another thing. White Greek is another, etc

- Which is why we have this notion here in Europe of ‘nationality over race’. Being white isn’t as important as where you’re from

- So this really only becomes an issue if you’re an immigrant

- So being white in Europe doesn’t save you from racial discrimination, because sure, you’re technically white, but you’re not white white. Not the right white

- Here in England, Europeans with really blatantly foreign names, such as myself, find it more difficult to get job interviews, because they take one look at our name and don’t bother reading the rest of the CV. A guy I know was actually told by his boss to reduce the pile of CVs he had by ‘chucking away any with a name you can’t fucking pronounce’

- And then even when you do get an interview, half the time you walk into the joint several shades darker than everyone else and feel like you’ve walked into the ‘Swedish supermodel’ clubhouse and you just know you’re not getting hired

This is all basic stuff and it’s very much taken for granted here. Race and ethnicity are not as clear cut, so it can be very confusing for non-Europeans to wrap their heads around. Which is fine. But I implore you to stay in your lane, because when you say things like ‘no white person anywhere in the world ever knows what it’s like to face racial discrimination’, it’s really fucking offensive to all of the European immigrants who are denied jobs, harassed by the police and beaten by racists, because foreign is foreign to these people, and they don’t give a shit if you’re technically white. So when you mean white American, say white American. 

Women belong to every minority; raise women up, and you raise up those minorities.

Today is the 3rd annual Women’s March, an international movement advocating for gender equality and human rights. The quote above is what my poster said at the first one two years ago. 

And it’s true: women are members of every community on the planet (unless you count fraternities, which I don’t). Religious, ethnic, racial, sexual -  you name it, women are a part of it. Unfortunately, lots of these groups often face discrimination and prejudice in any number of ways, for any number of reasons. Anywhere in the world, someone is always getting crap for being who they are. And regardless of their cultural identity, women often have it much worse.   

So let’s stop the hate against hijabis. Let’s stop underestimating women of color. Let’s stop the neglect of transgender woman, and the objectification of girls who like girls. 

Raise up the women, and you raise up the world. 

Happy International Women’s Day! Every March 8, the world celebrates the social, economic, and political achievements of women everywhere. For centuries, women around the world have become heroines of all shapes and sizes, reshaping their communities and achieving their goals. For over a hundred years, international communities have recognized this day as a time to honor their accomplishments and fight for gender equality. Today is the day to fight for women’s rights, to global equity, education, and dignity. So what history will you make, on March 8, 2018?

Taking a break from original stuff

Snake: a poem

A snake is coiled, lying in wait.  He is buying his time with the coins he stole from dead men's pockets. A snake is vicious, his little fangs biting off what he can chew only with a spoonful of shamelessness.  He has learned to be soft and secret until the time is ripe to speak his bloated mind.

A snake has thick skin - until someone flips him belly up, and he wails like a child, and sends out his fangs like a thing gone wild.

Pablo Neruda said, "Hatred grows scale on scale..." And the snake has scales as sharp as slate. He rattles his tail, but by then it's too late.

Madness rules, and the snake is free. 

Happy Monday - I hope you’re enjoying your day off. This weekend, I was with my mom and brother up in Wells, Vermont, staying in our modest family cabin for a few nights. On Saturday night, the nearby Larson Farm hosted their annual Columbus Day weekend party, with friends and townspeople coming in for a potluck, dance, and auction. My family and I have been going up for years. 

After everyone had grabbed some dinner and apple pie, the patriarch of the farm, Rich Larson, stood up on a wagon and explained to us the premises of the auction. He’s told the same story every year as long as I can remember: Over a decade ago, a young man from Uganda had come to live with him and his family. One night at dinner, Rich was asking him about his home, and the Ugandan education system came up.Their guest explained that school in Uganda is free - however, a family would need to purchase a school uniform and basic supplies to actually be able to enroll their child. For primary school students to get the necessary goods, that’s 35 US dollars; for a secondary school student, that’s around $60; for university, it’s $100. With those steep expenses, most families were unable to send their child to school. (Those prices have gone up in the past decade. These are relevant to the story, though with my addled memory I might be getting them wrong too. Go do some additional research if you’re interested.) 

  Rich and his family wanted to do something about that. So they joined the Uganda School Project, and every year since they’ve had an auction to send the money to families and students in Uganda. Paintings, farm antiques, plants, hats - it’s all on the table, and Rich’s son does that entertaining auctioneer voice. I stood with my mom in the crowd, still not allowed to bid, but watching with excitement.  At one point, Rich’s daughter and someone else got into a bidding war over two floral watercolors - the price went up to $250 dollars before the friend at the back of the crowd won. That night, over $3,000 were raised - all to go directly to the fund. 

  Rich told us in the barn that “The way we’re going to reach world peace is if everyone in the community is self-reliant and self-sustainable, and the best way to get to that point is to provide everyone with a good education.” Everyone cheered, and that was definitely a source of motivation that evening. Even better, one of the items actioned off was actually made by a university student from Uganda - after graduating, the young man had started his own business weaving prayer rugs, and making sandals out of old tires. The best part? His $100 tuition was payed by the money raised at the auction a few years back. Rich climbed up on the wagon next to his son to tell us that we were responsible for that young man’s success. 

  When people near and far get together to help others and better their communities, what is achieved benefits everyone. Rich Larson was absolutely correct in his message about world peace - education is the single most powerful weapon that can be used to better the world. And for those of us already blessed with that tool, it’s our job to give that same gift to others - just what the Larsons and their guests have been doing for over a decade. If a single farm in a tiny Vermont town can put dozens of kids in school each year, what impact can this blog have? Or you, for that matter?