If You Thought T'Challa U.N. Speech Was Good, You Got Hear Kwame Nkrumah’s U.N Speech
One cardinal fact of our time is the momentous impact of Africa’s awakening upon the modern world. The flowing tide of African nationalism sweeps everything before it and constitutes a challenge to the colonial powers to make a just restitution for the years of injustice and crime committed against our continent….
For years, Africa has been the foot-stool of colonialism and imperialism, exploitation and degradation. From the north to the south, from the east to the west, her sons languished in the chains of slavery and humiliation, and Africa’s exploiters and self-appointed controllers of her destiny strode across our land with incredible inhumanity without mercy, without shame, and without honour. Those days are gone and gone forever, and now I, an African, stand before this august Assembly of the United Nations and speak with a voice of peace and freedom, proclaiming to the world the dawn of a new era….
Julia Martin was brutally stabbed to death by her ex while attempting to return his engagement ring.
In a terribly sad story out of Chicago, yet another young woman lost her life for turning down a man.
The victim at the center of the senseless killing is 27-year-old Julia Martin. According to the Chicago Tribune,
Martin and her ex-boyfriend Rodney Harvey broke up six months prior to
the fateful incident and had been dating for three years when the
relationship ended.
Martin ultimately decided to return the
engagement ring. When Harvey arrived at her apartment under the premise
of picking up the ring, he reportedly forced his way in and began
stabbing her repeatedly. He then jumped to his own death from her
apartment building, the Tribune reports. Martin was able to survive the
attack long enough to call 9-1-1 and identify the man who stabbed her.
She also called multiple friends and her father, who was shocked by the
tragic encounter.
“There was no indication he was dangerous,”
Julia’s father Derrick Martin said. “I never would’ve thought that in a
million years.” Mr. Martin also revealed that while his daughter told
him about the breakup with Harvey and her plans to give the ring back,
he never knew the specifics of their split. “She never went into that
much detail about how bad it was,” he continued. “She was just telling
me that they had broke it off and that she was planning on giving the
ring back.”
Mr. Martin described his daughter as
ambitious, adventurous and into her career. Her death is unfortunately
the latest in a series of passings in the family; the grieving father
shared that he’s also lost his wife, mother, father and brother in
recent years.
In addition to her father, Martin leaves behind 22-year-old sister Jasmin and a young nephew named Cameron.
Students at The University of Texas are open-carrying dildos in protest of the state’s loose gun laws. Roy Wood, Jr. gets both sides of the story.
*smh* Look y'all… I’m Texas born and raised (recently escaped to Seattle)… and the shit that goes on there STILL flabbergasts me. WTF, Texas? I give a million kudos to the dildo wielders, though… that’s AMAZING! XD
It was GLORIOUS seeing UT do this.
You either love UT or you hate it. And we (generally) marry accordingly.
This post is one that I have been meaning to make for awhile, and will likely be one of many. I’ve been chewing on this idea of radical softness as a weapon. What I intended when coining the term. What my motives are.
I’ve read a lot of critiques about radical softness and they’ve helped me develop my own thoughts further. When I first shared work online about this idea it was such a baby thought, yet people treated it as a developed movement that had clear, concise intentions.
Radical Softness as it exists to me
My main goal was to accept my own vulnerability and to say that there is nothing wrong with softness. It is about me sorting through my feelings on mental illness and finding power in my frequent emotional breakdowns. This Audre Lorde quote comes to mind: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
The work has dealt with femininity because to me, my femininity and mental illness overlap. Abuse in my life has had a strong link to my gender. This is not to say that softness is a concept reserved for cis women. (I myself do not identify as a cis woman.) This is not to say that this is only for femmes either. It is only to say that I am making work relevant to my own experiences. Softness is a concept that goes beyond gender. Above all, my intention was to declare the strength in healing and in accepting a range of emotions.
Radical Softness as talked about in a larger sphere
When discussed, radical softness has been shrouded in pink and often associated with young girlhood & cis white feminism. I have read articles which compare it to The Virgin Suicides and which bring in other young, white feminine artists who are creating work which does not deal with the same themes.
I am very annoyed and bored when I read about radical softness being associated with young girlhood. It seems too easy of a connection to make. Hey look here’s another young white feminine person posting their work online!! It’s pink!! Let’s not critique this work at all or actually engage in it! It fits in just fine with the rest of the Tumblr aesthetic!
It waters down the idea behind this and instead, focuses solely on aesthetics to make it something that is easy to swallow.
Privilege in radical softness
I say this as a white, non-gender conforming, non-straight femme from a fairly upperclass background: I am privileged as hell. Therefore, the work I make, no matter how much I try, is going to reflect those privileges. The ability to be soft and tender is a privilege I have. This is going to be easier for me, as a white cis-passing femme, then others.
I made a conscious effort to make the radical softness zine (a collab zine with work focusing on healing and tenderness) diverse and to not only alleviate the voices of white cis artists. But there is a lot of work to be done involving radical softness & race. However, that is not my place to do the work. Others have reached out to me to tell me they are building off the idea and I think that is very important. The work does not stop with me. My privileged, specific way of thinking does not speak for everyone.
So…now what?
Like I said, I am sucking on critiques I have read. About how emotions cannot be gendered (based off of a photo of mine: “solely praising masculine traits is damaging), how using the word “radical” is negative, how aggressiveness is not rewarded because when even if a female is aggressive, they will be critiqued because any female reaction is critiqued. I am thinking about all of them and figuring out better ways to articulate myself. Language is important. Being clear & getting feedback is important. I’m working on things.
Softness as passivity
I have gotten criticism in my personal life about “preaching softness” and yet being rude to someone. Being soft is not about being docile. It is not about not having an opinion. I am more tender with myself than ever, but I also am learning to deal with my aggression and anger. I will not tell others to not be violent. I will not tell others to not be violent. I understand that these are valid reactions to oppression.
I am intimate and soft with myself and those close to me, but I will not be nice to those who are abusive. I will not take someone’s shit because they believe to be soft is to be kind, always. I will not be walked over. I will not be non-violent or quiet.
This is not softness to me. Softness is powerful. It is about healing. It is about inner-strength. And strength means standing up for yourself. It is not about forced passivity.
