"Meet The Dominatrix Who Requires The Men Who Hire Her To Read Black Feminist Theory"

"Over time, Mistress Velvet said she began “doing a lot of theorizing” about the power dynamics of a black woman holding that kind of supremacy over a white cisgender man. She began introducing black feminist theory into her sessions with clients, who’ve told her their relationship in that space has impacted their behavior outside of it. 

One client said he noticed he only held the door open for black women. Another, whom Mistress Velvet educated about the systemic oppression of black women, founded a nonprofit to support black mothers on Chicago’s South Side... 

In terms of unpacking their way of fetishizing black women and stereotypes about black women, I ask them, “Why do you want to be in my presence, why do you find me attractive?” And sometimes they might say things that then remind me of stereotypes of black women ― like a jezebel or something ― so I’ll have them read a piece about how what they said is related to this historic phenomenon about thinking about black women. I say, “Here are its roots. Here’s why it’s problematic.” That way, I can say, you can idolize me, but we need to have it be done in a way that isn’t also problematic...

One of the chapters that I wrote [for my thesis] was a little bit about my work as a dom, but also just generally the idea of BDSM as a space where we could really work through a lot of the stuff that we experience. So what I mean by that is what kind of emotional, mental and social benefits could be cultivated in a space where a black woman is dominant over a white man? What kind of benefits does that have in our lives?"

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mistress-velvet_us_5a822b50e4b00ecc923d4eba?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black%2BVoices&section=black-voices&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&utm_source=bv_fb&utm_medium=facebook&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000047

FB: "I am now given this platform to make white, cis men think about things in certain ways. Just allowing them to be submissive doesn’t always allow for the more drastic shift in the framework and thinking that I want. So I have to bring in my girls, like Audre Lorde and Patricia Hill Collins, and make these men actually read about black feminism. Then, it’s moving from them simply fetishizing black women, to realizing: This is a systemic issue I’m contributing to by the virtue of being a white man and being rich."

"Goodbye Crown Meddling. Hello Māori Decolonizing Development"

"Selby chronicled an astonishing timeline of the revival of Māori language: In 1915, all Māori in Otaki spoke their native language. By 1975, after settler colonialism had firmly penetrated its roots across New Zealand, no one under the age of 30 could speak Māori in Otaki. That same year, three tribes set the impetus for language revitalization with Generation 2000, a 25-year experiment under the visionary leadership of Māori scholar Whatarangi Winiata. The experiment proved to be a success: A language that was lost for two generations is now spoken by half of the Māori population in Otaki. “The ability to think and communicate again in the native tongue has created a pathway for us to see the world once again through Māori eyes,” said Selby.

To many of the indigenous participants at the hui, Otaki embodied a living model of what’s possible when local communities have ownership and control over development and cultural revitalization projects. Over the course of two days of the hui, indigenous scientists, doctors, scholars and activists shared with philanthropy groups their advocacy efforts on issues ranging from climate change to deep-sea mining."

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/culture/social-issues/goodbye-crown-meddling-hello-maori-decolonizing-development/

FB:" “Climate change is interlinked with colonialism. This is a moral crisis, whose impact is not felt equally. The confiscation of indigenous lands led to modern capitalism and industrialization,” said Dr. Rhys Jones, a Māori physician and educator. Dr. Jones emphasized that preserving indigenous knowledge and worldview was key for fighting climate change. “This battle won’t be won by governments. It will be won at the local level by stopping fossil fuel explorations, oil drilling and standing by the side of Indigenous Peoples,” he said."

"HOW NIGERIA'S MILLENNIAL PRIESTESS IS REVITALIZING SPIRITUALITY"

"Concerned that the Orisha culture and its practices were being scorned and forgotten, Ifawemimo took to social media six years ago in an effort to educate a broader audience about indigenous Yoruba spirituality. Her inspiration? Nollywood, or Nigeria’s film industry, which she blames for depicting Yoruba spirituality as a practice based on sorcery, love potions and get-rich-quick charms, distorting its history and contributing to negative stereotypes. “Though our people have been brainwashed already, [Nollywood] has made our people lack knowledge and enlightenment about their roots,” she says...

She is helped in her mission to revitalize Yoruba spirituality, she says, by a current thirst to understand it in its original form before it made its way to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade, reaching countries like Cuba, Brazil and Haiti, where the Santeria and Candomble communities adopted and adapted it. She believes that its growing visibility in the diaspora has been a driving force for many on the continent to both learn and reclaim the practice.

It’s a renaissance that has even found its way into pop-culture iconography — from Beyoncé invoking the Yoruba tradition in Lemonade (she appears as Oshun, a Yoruba water goddess, in the album’s second single) to the French-Cuban duo Ibeyi’s chants to the Orisha spirits Oya and Eleggua on their debut album."

http://www.ozy.com/provocateurs/how-nigerias-millennial-priestess-is-revitalizing-spirituality/83619

"White Anti-Racism Must Be Based in Solidarity, Not Altruism"

"Politicians may engineer coups d’état, brutal austerity, or covert wars in Africa and Haiti; they may enact policies that intensify poverty, incarceration, and pollution that disproportionately hurt black and brown people in the United States, but these are not sufficient to irrefutably verify that they are “a racist.” Only public speech acts can do that, since, as Fleming continued in her Twitter thread, “the problem, for many whites, isn’t white racism or dominance —the problem is a failed public performance of being ‘non-racist.’”

In this formulation, racism is not a system but an inherent quality within an individual, proof of which comes when they publicly espouse racist views or use racist language. By formally classifying Trump “a racist” (“calling him out”), well-to-do liberals are able to implicitly deem themselves “non-racists” while keeping the pervasiveness of the attitude that Africa and Haiti are shitholes where it belongs: swept well under the rug... 

Not that people shouldn’t interrupt racist personal acts or respect the expertise of people of color regarding how racism plays out in their lives and communities, but that alone does not constitute a strategy. At best, these interruptions and this deference are a woefully inadequate response to systemic racism. At worst, white altruism is a recipe for disaster. Not only does it treat racism as personal flaw rather than a system of power; it also insists that white people have an obligation to help black communities “advance,” a construction that is vulnerable to white people’s misconceptions of what constitutes “advancement.” Without being anchored to a goal of redistributing power, altruism is often carried along by the prevailing currents of racist capitalism... 

Time and again, white people acting as allies in other people’s “progress” have not just failed to address racist power relations; they have entrenched white dominance. Altruism cannot be the basis for white anti-racist action. There’s only one thing that can: solidarity.

Solidarity is about unity, not around like-mindedness or affinity but around common interests. Neither having the same opinions nor even mutual fondness is required for one to enter into a solidarity relationship with another. All they need is the acknowledgement that, to achieve liberation, “I need you and you need me.” Solidarity is about fighting for oneself alongside another person, for one’s family alongside another family."

https://www.thenation.com/article/white-anti-racism-must-be-based-in-solidarity-not-altruism/

This isn't a 101, this is the complex, nuanced thesis of a 400-level seminar. You need some prerequisites before you can engage with this. 

(or it's poorly organized drivel and I'm reading into it my own utopian ideas. I can't tell). 

Related: anti-racist rednecks with guns; another on solidarity? 

"Men Warn Me About Things. Women Help Me."

"This isn’t without exception. There have been some wonderfully helpful men who’ve been generous with their time and advice. But for the most part, men tend to take the approach of warning me about all the things that will be hard, all the challenges to look out for, all the things I need to keep in mind, all the ways I could fail. Sometimes, it’s a Venn diagram as some men are helpful but also “concerned about how this is going to work.” These interactions do not frequently go beyond the warnings. They offer obstacles and little else.

I don’t know if they handle other men the same way, but research suggests not. This gendered pattern of questions exists in the funding space as well.

In the Harvard Business Review researchers noted that funders tend to ask men about potential gains and women about potential losses...

Last spring, I was so fortunate to be a part of the ONA Women’s Leadership Accelerator and, among many memorable moments, there is one that has permanently stuck with me. We’d only been in the same room together for a day, and everyone was speaking about what they currently do and what they’re trying to do. We got deep really fast. And there was a pause and someone observed how quickly we’d gotten into the really meaty parts of our work, challenges and goals. And then someone noted why that was. We had each been able to skip that part of the conversation where you have to spend time explaining your background, establishing your expertise and authority so that people actually listen to you when you get to the important parts. We’d given each other the benefit of the doubt — if you are talking about this thing, you know about it and I will listen to you and I will hear you."

https://medium.com/@HBCompass/men-warn-me-about-things-women-help-me-7457ca6b2583

FB: "In my experience, women have proceeded with our conversations in ways that demonstrate that they think of me as a reasonably intelligent human being who has gotten as far as I have because I’m aware of the challenges I face and am navigating them. They ask engaging questions and then often almost immediately and collaboratively brainstorm ideas with me. It’s not that we never discuss challenges, it’s that they don’t assume I’ve never thought about them and the conversation isn’t anchored on pitfalls but what can be done to overcome them."

"Eucalyptus: How California’s Most Hated Tree Took Root"

"Besides the practical need to plant more trees, settlers who were used to dense forests also felt that the lack of trees in California’s grassy, marshy, scrubby landscape made it feel incomplete. So within a few years, nurseries in San Francisco were selling young eucalyptus grown from seed.

The trees grew remarkably quickly here, even in poor soil.

“In an average rainfall year here in California, these trees probably put on 4 to 6 feet in height and maybe, in their early growth years, a half-inch to an inch in diameter,” says Joe McBride, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of landscape architecture and environmental planning.

Beyond the drive to change the landscape and provide firewood, Californians also planted eucalyptus (mainly blue gum) to serve as windbreaks."

https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2018/02/01/eucalyptus-how-californias-most-hated-tree-took-root-2/

"A British court rules that sending defendants to the U.S. prison system is a human rights violation"

"The findings of the High Court in Love’s case paint an unembellished but unmistakably grim portrait of the reality of the American carceral state, in which harsh sentences, poor access to medical care and excessive use of solitary confinement mean that U.S. authorities cannot reliably ensure the survival of vulnerable prisoners. In finding that extradition to the United States would be “oppressive” to Love, the High Court found that conditions in American jails were “not adequate to prevent suicide.” The court found that Love, who has Asperger’s syndrome and suffers from severe depression and other health problems, was likely to be held in solitary confinement as a suicide prevention measure and that he wouldn’t have adequate access to mental health treatment. The court also found that the heightened risk that Love would commit suicide was due in part to the excessive length of sentence Love anticipated in the United States, substantially longer than what he would be subject to in a prosecution for similar crimes in the U.K. In short, the court found that the U.S. prison system is a mortal threat."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/02/07/a-british-court-rules-that-sending-defendants-to-the-u-s-prison-system-is-a-human-rights-violation/?utm_term=.44951527075c