Tag: fairness

soupytwist:

captainofalltheships:

noctis-nova:

All it means when people say “you’re speaking from a place of privilege” is that you’re likely to underestimate how bad the problem is by default because you are never personally exposed to that problem. It’s not a moral judgement of how difficult your life is.

example: i’m right-handed, so when i discovered that left-handed people can’t properly use scissors made for me (so basically all scissors i’d ever seen or used) let me tell you that was a fucking eye-opener

no matter how much better their life is, a left-handed person will have to track down specialized scissors or be forever frustrated while i live that happy snipping life

and that’s the tip of the iceberg concerning right-handed privilege, especially in a historical context, but you get my point

Also, privilege isn’t about *you* as an individual and your specific experiences which is why I LOVE the left-/right-handedness analogy. Privilege is often the result of an accident of birth, not the result of your effort or choices. It’s not an indictment of *you* but of a social system that treats *accidents of birth* in a preferential way. When one fails to recognize this, one is “speaking from a place of privilege.”

“Accidents of birth” can include skin color, sex, gender, wealth, location, handedness, language, ability, intellect, etc.

smithsonianlibraries:

smithsonianlibraries:

Pictured above is Edmonia Lewis (bottom), along with her sculptures The Death of Cleopatra (top left) and Forever Free (top right). 

I am not sure how to begin even trying to summarize the fascinating life of Edmonia Lewis and her sculptures. The Smithsonian magazine’s 1996 article on her does a far better job than I ever could, so I encourage you to check it out!

The Death of Cleopatra now resides in the Smithsonian American Art Museum (the source of the picture of it above). But the sculpture almost fell into complete obscurity after wowing the public at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia. SAAM also has a brief biography on Edmonia that’s worth exploring. Wikipedia’s article on Lewis is also a fine place to start, given the number of great references and sources listed. It’s also the source of Lewis’s portrait above.

The photo of Forever Free (top right) is from the book Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture, A Study in Interpretation by Freeman Henry Morris Murray that can be found in our collection of books online. The sculpture is now in the collection of the Howard University Gallery of Art. The author, Freeman Henry Morris Murray, is fascinating in his own right, being dubbed the first Black art historian. (He doesn’t have a Wikipedia page, for all you Wikipedians out there who would like to volunteer.)

The life Edmonia Lewis forged at a time when being anything but white or male would almost certainly relegate you to the dustbin of history stands as an inspiration. Do yourself a favor and don’t resist exploring more.

We’re reblogging this post of ours from 2014 today since Edmonia Lewis has a Google Doodle today! (It’s also wonderful to see that Freeman H.M. Murray now has a great Wikipedia page, too.) 

I should mention we have a couple more books in our collection about Edmonia Lewis (though not digitally available—check WorldCat to find books in libraries near you):

Edmonia Lewis : wildfire in marble by Rinna Evelyn Wolfe (Parsippany, NJ: Dillon Press, 1998), which is a juvenile literature book

Child of Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the problem of art history’s Black and Indian subject by Kirsten Pai Buick (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010)

Also, don’t forget to take a look at the Smithsonian’s Collection Search to take a look at the many sculptures, etc. in our museums & research centers! 

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
Please come to the gate immediately.

Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.
Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her
Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she
Did this.

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.
Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick,
Sho bit se-wee?

The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used—
She stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been canceled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the
Following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late,

Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him.
We called her son and I spoke with him in English.
I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and
Would ride next to her—Southwest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and
Found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian
Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering
Questions.

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered
Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—
And was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California,
The lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same
Powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers—
Non-alcoholic—and the two little girls for our flight, one African
American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice
And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too.

And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—
Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,

With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always
Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought,
This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped
—has seemed apprehensive about any other person.

They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.
This can still happen anywhere.

Not everything is lost.

Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), “Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal.” I think this poem may be making the rounds, this week, but that’s as it should be.  (via oliviacirce)

wingedkiare:

cicemily:

15-99-91:

Ok, re: the hockey boycott, I wanna explain some of the key points you soccer fans who may not know the full importance of this. I know it may not be a sport you follow, but it’s a step for all of women’s sports

  • Like in soccer, Team USA is one of the dominant NTs in woho, a very top-teir NT. Obviously any NT standing up for what they deserve is a big deal, but havng a “big” team like this strike really sends echos through the hockey world and the sports world in general.
  • Worlds is one of the major hockey tourneys, so boycotting this is a massive statement. Theyre not boycotting some small, less importnat tournament.
  • The US is hosting Worlds this year. We’re boycotting a tourney that our own country is hosting. Which makes this boycott harder to ignore and really helps things hit home (and also dude it’s just hella gutsy)
  • The team isn’t even striking for equal pay, they just want living wages. Like enough-money-to-eat type wages.
    • The players get paid $1000 a month during the Olympic period, which lasts 6 months
    • Outside of the Olympic months they get paid basically nothing and many players have second jobs as a means to survive

Additionally, they players are lobbying for stronger development opportunities for youth players. The MNT already has this, per an ESPN quote they spend $3.5M on programs for younger boys and none for young girls.

The US Hockey org put out a statement that pretty much talks around every issue the WNT raised. So it’s really important that instead of asking what have they done for women’s hockey? It’s to ask – what do they regularly do for the men’s team and the growth of men’s hockey in the US that they aren’t for women?