War in a Dress

darklovelyandsouthasian:

On National Coming Out Day, Thursday, October 11th, 2012, a coalition of South Asian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) organizations and individuals in the U.S. will launch DeQH, the first South Asian LGBTQ national helpline. DeQH offers free, confidential, culturally sensitive peer support, information and resources by telephone for LGBTQ South Asian individuals, families and friends around the globe. The intent is to provide a safe and supportive ear for callers to share their concerns, questions, struggles or hopes through conversations with trained LGBTQ South Asian Peer Support Volunteers.

Callers can reach the helpline at (908) FOR-DEQH (908-367-3374) 8pm-10pm on Thursdays and Sundays, Eastern Standard Time [5-7pm PST]. Days and times will expand over time.

For general information, check out www.deqh.org and contact deqh.info@gmail.com.

poczineproject:

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Contribute to POC Zine Project’s first zine series!

+++BY and FOR folks living at/below the poverty line+++

This zine series is being created in collaboration with Carey Fuller, a homeless mother and activist in the Seattle, WA area. We’re compiling relevant and practical knowledge.

OUTCOME

We will distribute this free zine nationwide to those who need it, provide it as an e-zine for worldwide access and create an online community resource with real-time information.

NO DEADLINE

This is an ongoing series. The first edition will be released in December of 2012, along with the website. We’ll share more details in the coming weeks.

WHO CAN SUBMIT

Anyone who has had experience living at or below the poverty line. We want your tips, stories and practical knowledge about how to survive and thrive.

We will also consider contributions from those with experience serving at-risk communities (shelter volunteers, social workers, etc.).

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE POC TO SUBMIT. However, we will make contributions from POC a priority in the editing process.

GUIDELINES

Evolving. We’ll be releasing a website dedicated to this project in the coming weeks, but for now we’re keeping this open.

BE AN ALLY

We’re looking for help getting the word out about this call for submissions, as well as with creating publishing + distribution partnerships.

Feel free to email and print this flyer for distribution wherever it makes sense to do so!

SUBMISSIONS & QUESTIONS/FEEDBACK EMAIL

POCZPpublishing@gmail.com (don’t forget the two letter Ps <3)

WHY IS THIS THE FIRST ZINE SERIES FROM POCZP?

Because more people are living at or below the poverty line than you realize.

Because often those in crisis resort to harmful decisions due to lack of information.

Because often government resources are difficult and/or impossible to access due to bureaucracy and misinformation.

Because most publications about poverty are focused on educating the general masses about poverty, not providing real-time, relevant and practical information for those living in poverty about how to survive and thrive.

Because mental survival is just as important and this is an experiment in building a DWO (Doing With Others) support network.

Learn more about Carey Fuller: www.careyfuller.com

thepeoplesrecord:

Referring to Bradley as Breanna Manning
June 27, 2012

As The People’s Record continues to cover whistleblower news relating to Wikileaks and Breanna Manning, many readers have had questions about us referring to Pfc. Manning as “Breanna.”

Breanna Manning, also known as Bradley, was arrested in May 2010 in Kuwait for releasing thousands of classified cables to Wikileaks. However, once the Army intelligence analyst was arrested, her greatest fears weren’t a life sentence or years in solitary confinement.

In June 2010, conversations between Manning and former hacker Adrian Lamo were released to the public and offered insight into the whistleblower’s involvement with Wikileaks.

She also confided in Lamo that she was having gender identity issues and feared being publicized as a man.

“I wouldn’t mind going to prison for the rest of my life, or being executed so much, if it wasn’t for the possibility of having pictures of me… plastered all over the world press… as boy…” (Source)

A few days after Manning had confided in Lamo, she was arrested in Kuwait after Lamo informed the FBI and the Army about the leaked cables.

Manning has been held in conditions classified by Amnesty International as “inhumane,” including 23 hours in solitary confinement each day, daily strip searches and deprivation of pillows, sheets and often times clothing and her glasses. Manning has lived in these conditions since July 2010 for exposing war crimes, corruption, civilian murders and human rights violations, but has not been convicted of any crime. She is currently being charged with “transferring classified data” and “delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source.”

Perhaps widely acknowledging Manning’s transgender identity would have exposed her to more violence and an even more unfair trial. But The People’s Record feels it is vital to cover news surrounding the trial in the way in which she identifies – as a transgender woman. For clarification, we will always mention that Breanna is more widely known as Bradley, but in order to justly and accurately portray the struggle for truth, we will continue to recognize her transgender identity.

Breanna Manning currently faces a potential life sentence for her heroism in bringing justice to victims of war and exploitation all over the world.

- G. Razo

My bestie is insightful and amazing for a ton of reasons, this post being but one of them. So, so, so worth the read. Seconding everything written below.

ETA: This is what I believed as a little girl. That if you open your mouth and say the wrong thing, someone with a badge can take your brown dad away from you. That line hit so damn close to home that I’m crying hard at my desk right now. Don’t give a shit if I look a mess - that’s real.

ohmija:

‎”Is this your father?” The police officer loomed above me, partially obscuring my dad from view as he leaned into the car window to get a closer look at me in the passenger’s seat. I was about seven or eight years old. My dad was taking me to school, a private christian outfit where I was one of the few “minority” students.

“Is this your father?” he asked again, his tone adjusted to mimic friendliness, “Are you OK?” but I was mute with fear. This wasn’t the first time a police officer pulled my Chicano dad over for no reason at all. It would not be the last. But this was the first time an officer questioned his paternity while I was in the car. I looked at my dad, his face barely hiding his humiliation and rage.

I didn’t have the words then, but I what I wanted to say was “No, this is not my father. This is not the dad I know. My dad is strong and you’ve made him weak. My dad always has to get the last word but around you he grows silent. You’ve made my dad a suspect. What did you do to him? Where did you take my dad?” But instead I said nothing and stared at my hands trembling in my lap. 

My dad was/is brown. My dad had tattoos on his arms before it lent hipster cred — when it meant that you were either in a gang or spent time in prison. This was enough reason for a police officer to pull my dad over on a sunny morning and grill him about his past, present and future while I squirmed in the passenger’s seat, believing that if I said even one wrong word they would take him away from me.

This is what I believed as a little girl. That if you open your mouth and say the wrong thing, someone with a badge can take your brown dad away from you. Even the thought was enough to paralyze me.

Terror. Terrorism. 

Flash forward seven/eight years. I’m a rebellious teen who steals my stepdad’s car at 15 and takes it on the highway to visit friends in another city. I have no license and don’t know how to drive. I teach myself, weaving between lanes at 1am at night. Soon enough, I hear sirens.

“Are you ok?” The officer is friendly as I exit the car and approach him, hiding my fear behind a big smile. In the police car there is another officer. Two of them. My teen mind and body saturated in adrenaline comes up with a lie: I left my purse with my license at the home where I was babysitting. I have to get home so my mom can take the car to work — she works nights. 

The officer sizes me up. I’m fair skinned, my hair is dyed a blondish brown and I’m thin and pretty. My jeans are tight. He smiles, drinking it in, oblivious to the carelessly strewn cases of beer in the back seat. All signs point to me being arrested, and yet I’m not. They let me go. 

They let me go. After driving like a maniac on the highway at 1am. After not having any registration or a license. After being visibly very young, with suspicious looking packages in the backseat that blatantly reveal with their packaging that I’m transporting alcohol. After they ask me where I’m going and I can’t give them a definite address, or cross streets.

They let me go. 

Eight years earlier: “‘It’s just the world, mija,” my dad said as we pulled up to my private elementary school — the place my parents sacrificed a lot to send me to. “It’s how the world is.”

As I entered my classroom, greeted by my white best friend as we hustled to get into our seats before our stern white teacher began glorifying Manifest Destiny, a thought lingered in my head: “But why is the world like that?”
————————————-

I shared this personal experience to raise a point: When you hear or think about Trayvon Martin’s death and the ongoing case, you may experience an assortment of feelings: confusion, outrage, sadness, etc.

Now imagine that your father was Trayvon Martin, or any other innocent black male over the past several decades who was gunned down because someone was afraid of his blackness — of his perceived threat of violence.

This is how many people of color feel when they see a badge — even if they’ve never committed a crime in their life. They know — from personal experience — that sometimes all it takes to get you questioned, detained, arrested or killed is to be not-white.

I’m actually not sharing this post for white people (although if you’re reading it and you are white, hi ♥).

I’m sharing this post for my POC friends and subscribers who continue to lie to themselves about their status in this world, even as they watch their darker-skinned relatives and friends experience the same injustices, over and over again.

Turning a blind eye to bigotry and racism isn’t solving anything. Do you, of course. Get your money, education and career. But remember that JUST “doing you” gives you a role to play as well in this horror show that is a perfect storm for results like George Zimmerman. The role of the apathetic minority. 

In many respects, this role is even more dangerous than the apathetic white person. When you, as a person of color, demonstrate that apathy is an acceptable path, you are endorsing your white friends’ apathy. You are their excuse for you being their only “close” POC friend. You become the reason why they never have to grow as human beings because saying “one of my best friends is black/latino/etc. friend” often secretly ends with “so this means I never have to examine my white privilege or give a shit about inequality.”

When you, as a person of color with privilege, work at a company where you are the only (or one of a few) POC, and don’t see anything wrong with this, you’re a part of the problem.

When you, as a person of color with privilege, never question your white friends when they say something completely ignorant in front of you, always letting it slide because “I know what they meant,” you are part of the problem.

We don’t live in a bubble. What we do and say affects the people around us. I see the transformation in my own life, in the lives of others. 

Blaming everything on whitey may have been relevant a few decades ago. But it’s become far more complicated. Many of us are accomplices in this complex charade that confuses society into thinking that some people deserve happiness and freedom more than others. 

It’s not your job to educate white people 24-7. But when you alter your life and responses to avoid addressing inequality because it makes you uncomfortable, you are making a choice to justify apathy. You are an accomplice.

More innocent black boys, men — more innocent people of color will die. They will keep dying because it’s far too easy to just blame the white man than to examine our role in this continued horror show. 

If you really care about what happened to Trayvon, prove it. Do one thing this week that you normally would not do that will tangibly make a difference towards achieving equality.

Donate an hour or two to mentor a young person of color. Volunteer at a homeless shelter. Organize a boycott against Urban Outfitters or any other store that blatantly rips off artists and poc communities while turning your cultural icons into cute panties for white girls. Talk about your job and what got you there at an organization that serves young people of color.

Don’t say “I would but I don’t have time.” That is a lie. If you have time to be on here for even one hour straight, you have time to do something. Time management is a skill everyone should cultivate. Also, if you need a purely selfish motive, often volunteering widens your network and can lead to profitable endeavors. 

To sum up the longest post I’ve ever written: posting your outrage on Facebook or Tumblr alone is not enough and it never will be. And thinking that the struggles of black people are not your struggles is a very dangerous game to play that, as demonstrated throughout history, does nothing but divide us.

http://www.volunteermatch.org/

This is a cross-post from my Facebook page.

transsuccess:

Zheng He (often referred to as Cheng Ho) was the powerful eunuch admiral of The Treasure Fleets.  Decades before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in search of a water route to Asia, the Chinese were exploring the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific with seven voyages of the “Treasure Fleet” that solidified Chinese control over much of Asia in the 15th century.  Cheng Ho was born around 1371 in China’s southwestern Yunan Province (just north of Laos) with the name Ma Ho. Ma Ho’s father was a Muslim hajji (who had made a pilgrimage to Mecca) and the family name of Ma was used by Muslims in representation of the word Mohammed.  When Ma Ho was ten years old (around 1381), he was captured along with other children when the Chinese army invaded Yunan to take control over the region. At the age of 13 he transitioned and he was placed as a servant in the household of the Chinese Emperor’s fourth son (out of twenty-six total sons), Prince Zhu Di.  Ma Ho proved himself to be an exceptional servant to Prince Zhu Di. He became skilled in the arts of war and diplomacy and served as an officer of the prince. Zhu Di renamed Ma Ho as Cheng Ho because his horse was killed in battle outside of a place called Zhenglunba. (Cheng Ho is also Zheng He in the newer Pinyin transliteration of Chinese but he’s still most commonly called Cheng Ho). Cheng Ho was also known as San Bao which means “three jewels.”

Cheng Ho, who was said to have been seven feet tall, was given greater power when Zhu Di became emperor in 1402. One year later, Zhu Di appointed Cheng Ho admiral and ordered him to oversee the construction of a Treasure Fleet to explore the seas surrounding China. Admiral Cheng Ho was the first eunuch appointed to such a high military position in China.  Reportedly, there were seven voyages of exploration and trade.  Zheng He visited India, Vietnam, Java, and Malacca, and then headed west across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka and Calicut and Cochin (cities on the southwest coast of India). On the return voyage home of the first trip, the Treasure Fleet was forced to battle pirates near Sumatra for several months. Eventually Cheng Ho’s men managed to capture the pirate leader and take him to the Chinese capital Nanjing, arriving in 1407.  For the second voyage, he chose to remain in China to oversee the repair of a temple at the birthplace of a favorite goddess while his crew set out.  The fleet’s third voyage (Cheng Ho’s second) from 1409 to 1411 consisted of 48 ships and 30,000 men. It followed closely the route of the first voyage but the Treasure Fleet established entrepots (warehouses) and stockades along their route to facilitate trade and storage of goods. On the second voyage the King of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was aggressive; Cheng Ho defeated the king’s forces and captured the king to take him to Nanjing.

In the summer of 1415, the Treasure Fleet returned from its fourth voyage with Cheng with a bounty of trade goods from the Persian Gulf. Detachments of this expedition sailed south along the eastern coast of Africa almost as far south as Mozambique. During each of Cheng Ho’s voyages, he brought back diplomats from other countries or encouraged ambassadors to go to the capital Nanjing on their own. The fifth voyage was ordered in 1416 to return the ambassadors who had arrived from other countries. A sixth voyage was launched in the spring of 1421 and visited Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf, and Africa. By this time, Africa was considered China’s “El Dorado,” a source of riches. Cheng Ho returned in late 1421 but the remainder of the fleet didn’t arrive in China until 1422. Emperor Zhu Di died in 1424 and his son Zhu Gaozhi became emperor. He canceled the voyages of the Treasure Fleets and ordered ship builders and sailors to stop their work and return home. Cheng Ho was appointed military commander of Nanjing.  The leadership of Zhu Gaozhi did not last long - he died in 1426 at the age of 26. His son and Zhu Di’s grandson Zhu Zhanji took Zhu Gaozhi’s place. Zhu Zhanji was much more like his grandfather than his father was and in 1430 he resumed the Treasure Fleet voyages by ordering Cheng Ho to resume his duties as admiral and make a seventh voyage in an attempt to restore peaceful relations with the kingdoms of Malacca and Siam. It took a year to gear up for the voyage which departed as a large expedition with 100 ships and 27,500 men. On the return trip in 1433 Cheng Ho is believed to have died; others state that he died in 1435 after the return to China.