Coming Out as a New Woman

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

On 3/22/2018 at 6:03 PM, Love Zhaoying said:

I want to start out mesh everything, so I don’t face the terrible stigma faced every day by non-mesh Avatars.

Sadly I saw a couple of club listing saying "Please, Mesh avatars only."

[Pussycat Catnap]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

You have a point. I may have turned it back off! So, why would the join line be more apparent with Freya/Lona than with Jake/Daniel?

In various updates between this or that mesh head or body... things sometimes get aligned a little wrongly. I think the current version number of Belleza might be because of a tiny seam that popped up in the version number right before it from an upload glitch. It was Belleza or some other product I use that had that happen... but the memory is fuzzy.

If you look at the back of the neck on Belleza, for me at least if I zoom in I can find a slight misalignment. But that might also be the brand of head I use... not sure. Don't have $5000L lying around to switch head brands anyway...

Here's what I look like in a neutral windlight, on myself and my alt:

Lacking the shadows and other features that would make these look nicer...

ps: The primary reason I don't usually have a hairbase on is to reduce avatar complexity...

- My mesh head comes in several versions, depending on the number of layers. I use the 'one layer skin only' version to give me a very low complexity score...

Hoping baked mesh gets rid of that issue for me...

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Pussycat Catnap

[Destiny Marques]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I wish there was an easy way to explain. But, we’ve chatted enough back and forth that you know how I feel. I’m just very confused by your repeated use of “stereotypical”. In my lifetime of experience, the more you talk about stereotypes (whether it’s “yours” or “other people’s”), the more you create division.

I personally would “never think about black stereotypes” when judging others. I’ve had too many friends of “every type”. 

I didn’t read your entire message until someone quoted it, thus the late response. 

Sorry I came off as so defensive, theoretically I’ve learned from this exchange. 

Meh, I can get into a long explanation about racism in SL and how black people are marginalized there and reduced (in most cases) to caricatures of themselves, when other racial/ethnic groups decide that they want to try on our skin. But it's not something that can really be explained in the confines of a forum message board, you'll just have to experience it for yourself.

However, I will say this..

You have a huge learning curve ahead of you. You are new to being "black", so you will experience things that will make you go WTF just happened? Or is this person serious?!

"Stereotypes" of us have become the running joke in the SL black community, because they are so common place. A good example of what I was trying to explain before, would be the big black male avatar with hulking muscles, and the ever so popular dark as coal TELLAQ skin. We already know what that signifies = White dude or non-black person behind that avie. Stereotypes only cause division when they are used to define a person or groups of people, and everything you know about them is based upon some preconceived notion or false belief that you have associated with them. Most of the time, those notions and beliefs tend to be steeped in racist dogma.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't be an issue EXCEPT, guys like that are usually the ones who play into the "big, black, bull"... or the gold grill having, platinum chain wearing "gangsta thug"... or the "BBC for White p****"... or the "Black master for White *****s".. types of racial pegging that a lot of actual SLers of color don't venture into. To me that reflects negatively on black men, and the ones I know don't like how they get portrayed by people who choose to engage in that sort of thing.

Black people in this country and the world over are already viewed in a particular negative light as it is, and fight everyday to avoid being typecast, pigeonholed (i.e., STEREOTYPED). Just because someone wants to play out some virtual sexual fantasy as a black man or black woman. Or be abusive to others because that's how they believe we act.

I'll end by saying, - there is a certain way that RL black people present themselves in SL, and then there's the "other" group of actors who perform being black. There are things that concern us as people that we strive to address in-world that often gets ignored, because SL by all intents and purposes, wasn't designed with us in mind, but we make a way for ourselves there despite that.

People often take the liberty of putting on a black skin without really considering what that signifies or represents (not saying this is the case with you, just speaking in general) and how it will effect the members of that race. 

Come back in a month or two of wearing your new avie on a regular basis and report back your findings if you wish. Perhaps this will give you a different, more personal perspective and help you to understand that which I have failed to explain.

In closing, I accept your apology, but I took no offense so it wasn't really necessary.

Edited March 27, 2018 by Kristen Beornssen

[Destiny Marques]

1 hour ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Just so it's out there. I am actually a 'Casta / Tusán' (google is your friend) using a black AV in SL. If you met my RL self... you would probably think you were meeting a Mexican with an unusual nose and 'kinky' hair. My nose 'gives away' a quattro-racial heritage.

I use a very dark skin tone on my avatar because that is what I see as beautiful. But she originally started getting darker and darker shades in 'reaction' to people complaining that my skin was 'too dark' when I was newer in SL and finally found my first 'non-pale' skin tone. I've always been that way... if somebody says "that's wrong" and I feel they're reasons are unjust or badly motivated, I do it twice as much. In the end I simply ran out of 'darker choices'...

My AV choice also highly reflects on my RL community and faith. But that's a topic people have told me I've covered too many times here already...

 

The 'nose' sidetrack in that other thread was kind of an accident... I was just looking for 'the thing about that avatar that seemed off' and went with something... and then a post or two later showed how my own gut instinct was wrong...  My own RL nose gets it's own bit of attention. Anytime people try to 'peg me' to some group... they get hung up on the nose and I see that look in their eyes that is wrestling with the words 'WTF'...

 

Yes, I remember that from reading your blog a long while back. A friend of mine really liked your writing and sent me the link. She's half black/half Filipino and really connected with your RL and SL experiences as a mixed person of color.

[Love Zhaoying]

7 minutes ago, Kristen Beornssen said:

In closing, I accept your apology, but I took no offense so it wasn't really necessary.

In case the original “why” did not come across: 

Well, I got to thinking of my deep connections to the Trans community, and how black Trans women not only helped start the gay rights movement, but are also still murdered the most. So..I’m a black Trans woman, basically (my Alt).

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Sadly I saw a couple of club listing saying "Please, Mesh avatars only."

Wow.   I wonder if they mean "full mesh" or if a system head is still allowed. Not that I'd want to go to such a place anyway, but curiosity....

      

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Wow.   I wonder if they mean "full mesh" or if a system head is still allowed. Not that I'd want to go to such a place anyway, but curiosity....

      

They’ve all got invisible system bodies under all that pretty mesh!

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

6 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

They’ve all got invisible system bodies under all that pretty mesh!

Yep, and it was full mesh I think. I still havn't gone mesh except for limited clothes/dresses.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

28 minutes ago, Kristen Beornssen said:

Black people in this country and the world over are already viewed in a particular negative light as it is, and fight everyday to avoid being typecast, pigeonholed (i.e., STEREOTYPED). Just because someone wants to play out some virtual sexual fantasy as a black man or black woman. Or be abusive to others because that's how they believe we act.

And growing up in the 60s and 70s had to deal with that stuff. Can't tell how many times I've been bullied in school due to be the only or one of the few black persons in the school.

[Pussycat Catnap]

19 minutes ago, Kristen Beornssen said:

Meh, I can get into a long explanation about racism in SL and how black people are marginalized there and reduced (in most cases) to caricatures of themselves,

"Stereotypes" of us have become the running joke in the SL black community, because they are so common place. A good example of what I was trying to explain before, would be the big black male avatar with hulking muscles, and the ever so popular dark as coal TELLAQ skin. We already know what that signifies = White dude or non-black person behind that avie. Stereotypes only cause division when they are used to define a person or groups of people, and everything you know about them is based upon some preconceived notion or false belief that you have associated with them. Most of the time, those notions and beliefs tend to be steeped in racist dogma.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't be an issue EXCEPT, guys like that are usually the ones who play into the "big, black, bull"... or the gold grill having, platinum chain wearing "gangsta thug"... or the "BBC for White p****"... or the "Black master for White *****s".. types of racial pegging that a lot of actual SLers of color don't venture into. To me that reflects negatively on black men, and the ones I know don't like how they get portrayed by people who choose to engage in that sort of thing.

Black people in this country and the world over are already viewed in a particular negative light as it is, and fight everyday to avoid being typecast, pigeonholed (i.e., STEREOTYPED). Just because someone wants to play out some virtual sexual fantasy as a black man or black woman. Or be abusive to others because that's how they believe we act.

I'll end by saying, - there is a certain way that RL black people present themselves in SL, and then there's the "other" group of actors who perform being black.

I remember the first two things I went looking for when I joined SL.

Inca
Interracial.

I'm 'mountain amazon' on one quarter of my family. Basically neighbor to the Inca people. Somehow I landed in a Gor sim.

I"m mixed race, so I wanted to see if there were groups of other mixed folks. I had no idea at the time how mono-ethnic SL was because I've been in a diverse region for all but my pre-teen years. Somehow I landed in a sex-club themed around sexual assault of white women... (this is a common theme, and why I like pointing out that 24% of the DNA of African Americans comes from 'white men', almost NONE comes from white women, and almost ALL African DNA found in White Americans, comes from black women. Rape of white women by black men is so rare that statistically it doesn't actually exist. But the reverse is so common that the African American population, statistically speaking, is actually a quarter Caucasian).

SL is chock full os racial stereotypes. Black stereotyping is extremely common (just visit some hip hop sims, or 'interacial sims' and look at avatars and dialog... then realize that people generally only talk like that in movies made to make them look bad...

There are plenty of Native American bad stereotypes and themes as well. The number of times I see a dude with the same 'long black hair with feathers in it' is beyond counting. And that's just scratching the surface. Here's the modern SL's version of what I got when I typed 'Inca' in search back in 2009:
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/i-should-be-offended-but-im-not-amazon-adult-content-sim-in-sl/

 

It's a tricky space for me as a person of color who is mixed... because every single group I am descended from views me just breathing on this planet as appropriating from them...
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/changes-over-the-years-journeying-through-myself/
I'm both part of the problem Kristen refers to, and a victim of it as well - I belong to all and none of these groups at the same time.

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

9 minutes ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

And growing up in the 60s and 70s had to deal with that stuff. Can't tell how many times I've been bullied in school due to be the only or one of the few black persons in the school.

I spent my early years as the only non-white child. When you're 5 and wondering why you're sitting in handcuffs while the friends that you were with are walking off to go play somewhere else... or when your teacher steps out of the room so your classmates can jump you... I'm not joking when I note carrying a knife around as a child. My over-tuned fighting instincts were hammered into me with the fists of the same boys using a different kind of 'hitting' on my classmates.

For me that was the 70s. When the 80s hit we moved 'back to California' and I suddenly figured out 'hey all these folks speaking Spanish - a lot of them look a bit like me'... and once I moved 'back to San Francisco' I found out that people could be friendly across ALL the race lines and the knife got put in a drawer and even tossed out.

But the angry ball of fur, doesn't scratch anymore, but still packs a mean hiss.

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Pussycat Catnap

[Love Zhaoying]

8 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

I remember the first two things I went looking for when I joined SL.

Inca
Interracial.

I'm 'mountain amazon' on one quarter of my family. Basically neighbor to the Inca people. Somehow I landed in a Gor sim.

I"m mixed race, so I wanted to see if there were groups of other mixed folks. I had no idea at the time how mono-ethnic SL was because I've been in a diverse region for all but my pre-teen years. Somehow I landed in a sex-club themed around sexual assault of white women... (this is a common theme, and why I like pointing out that 24% of the DNA of African Americans comes from 'white men', almost NONE comes from white women, and almost ALL African DNA found in White Americans, comes from black women. Rape of white women by black men is so rare that statistically it doesn't actually exist. But the reverse is so common that the African American population, statistically speaking, is actually a quarter Caucasian).

SL is chock full os racial stereotypes. Black stereotyping is extremely common (just visit some hip hop sims, or 'interacial sims' and look at avatars and dialog... then realize that people generally only talk like that in movies made to make them look bad...

There are plenty of Native American bad stereotypes and themes as well. The number of times I see a dude with the same 'long black hair with feathers in it' is beyond counting. And that's just scratching the surface. Here's the modern SL's version of what I got when I typed 'Inca' in search back in 2009:
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/i-should-be-offended-but-im-not-amazon-adult-content-sim-in-sl/

 

It's a tricky space for me as a person of color who is mixed... because every single group I am descended from views me just breathing on this planet as appropriating from them...
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/changes-over-the-years-journeying-through-myself/
I'm both part of the problem Kristen refers to, and a victim of it as well - I belong to all and none of these groups at the same time.

 

I’m soooo looking forward to a day when we are all perceived as “mixed”. It’s inevitable, and it will be awesome. Maybe in 20-100 generations.

[Pussycat Catnap]

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I’m soooo looking forward to a day when we are all perceived as “mixed”. It’s inevitable, and it will be awesome. Maybe in 20-100 generations.

As a mixed person, I actually like that there is variety. I have friends across so many different cultural lines in RL, and it is very engaging and 'beautiful' to see different perspectives and different ways people live. Especially as I remember this variety being nearly violently denied to me when I was a young child. What makes me love the region I live in now so much is when I see people who are clearly friends of very different races walking around the streets of my city, talking to each other, and being different yet happy together at the same time.

Just a few days ago I was 'out in the middle of the day' enjoying the site of three young men, maybe late high school or just after, walking down the street. White, Asian, and Black. talking like friends and eating lunch. When I was a child to preteen - that was a likely violent situation. But here, I see that kind of mix everyday.

Edited March 27, 2018 by Pussycat Catnap

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

My daughter is mixed, since my husband is white and been married over 30 years. And we have saw a lot together.

[Coby Foden]

6 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I was under the impression that the Neck Fix was only for the join of a system head to a mesh body.  I think I remember reading here in the forums that folks were told to turn that off for mesh body to mesh head.

Right. Maitreya body creator said exactly that. The neck fix is meant to be used only with mesh body + system head combination.
If both the body and head are mesh, then don't use the neck fix.
Actually the neck fix can look really weird in some lighting conditions (for example appearing really dark and even blotchy).

Better solution is to find matching skins. They will work quite ok in all lighting conditions.
In some lighting the seam might be visible when looking close, in some no seam at all visible.
(Anyway, in general people might not be staring at our necks very close, so the slightly visible seam should not be a big problem.)
- - - - -
I have exactly the same skin on my mesh body and mesh head. Even so, in some lighting the seam is slightly visible, in some not.
So, we just have to accept it and live with it.
By the way, I have seen the neck seam on some of those full mesh bodies (having body, feet, hands and head) too.
- - - - -

[LittleMe Jewell]

6 minutes ago, Coby Foden said:

Right. Maitreya body creator said exactly that. The neck fix is meant to be used only with mesh body + system head combination.
If both the body and head are mesh, then don't use the neck fix.
Actually the neck fix can look really weird in some lighting conditions (for example appearing really dark and even blotchy).
 

Even with mesh body w/ system head, some skins work better without the neck fix.  The neck fix makes my seem look worse.

[Destiny Marques]

On 3/27/2018 at 3:57 PM, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

And growing up in the 60s and 70s had to deal with that stuff. Can't tell how many times I've been bullied in school due to be the only or one of the few black persons in the school.

I can totally relate!

I'm sorry you went through that. That stuff was still going on in the 80's too. What's worse is when you get appointed the unofficial "spokesperson" for your racial/ethnic group and get hit with the questions about "why do ***** people do this/that and the other??" or "No offense but I don't like ( *insert*  a racist insult that's meant to apply to an entire group of people ), but you're not one of them!" Or touching your hair (without asking) and having the texture being mocked.

I could go on, but this forum is not the place for it. Just know that I definitely know where you are coming from.

 

[Destiny Marques]

On 3/27/2018 at 3:59 PM, Pussycat Catnap said:

I remember the first two things I went looking for when I joined SL.

Inca
Interracial.

I'm 'mountain amazon' on one quarter of my family. Basically neighbor to the Inca people. Somehow I landed in a Gor sim.

I"m mixed race, so I wanted to see if there were groups of other mixed folks. I had no idea at the time how mono-ethnic SL was because I've been in a diverse region for all but my pre-teen years. Somehow I landed in a sex-club themed around sexual assault of white women... (this is a common theme, and why I like pointing out that 24% of the DNA of African Americans comes from 'white men', almost NONE comes from white women, and almost ALL African DNA found in White Americans, comes from black women. Rape of white women by black men is so rare that statistically it doesn't actually exist. But the reverse is so common that the African American population, statistically speaking, is actually a quarter Caucasian).

SL is chock full os racial stereotypes. Black stereotyping is extremely common (just visit some hip hop sims, or 'interacial sims' and look at avatars and dialog... then realize that people generally only talk like that in movies made to make them look bad...

There are plenty of Native American bad stereotypes and themes as well. The number of times I see a dude with the same 'long black hair with feathers in it' is beyond counting. And that's just scratching the surface. Here's the modern SL's version of what I got when I typed 'Inca' in search back in 2009:
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/i-should-be-offended-but-im-not-amazon-adult-content-sim-in-sl/

 

It's a tricky space for me as a person of color who is mixed... because every single group I am descended from views me just breathing on this planet as appropriating from them...
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/changes-over-the-years-journeying-through-myself/
I'm both part of the problem Kristen refers to, and a victim of it as well - I belong to all and none of these groups at the same time.

 

I recall looking for interracial themed sims back when I joined, because I'm in such a relationship in RL (my husband is Norwegian). And all I found was a bunch of race themed "sex play" sims and nothing whatsoever geared towards black females/white males.

Quote

L is chock full os racial stereotypes. Black stereotyping is extremely common (just visit some hip hop sims, or 'interacial sims' and look at avatars and dialog... then realize that people generally only talk like that in movies made to make them look bad...

 

Oh, I've been and it's a part of the reason why I made mention of the stereotypes that I've encountered inworld. You will note that the whole "urban" theme is huge in SL, but when you look at the shops who advertise urban wear and this whole hip/hop/gangsta "lifestyle" - who do you normally see pictured in those ads? Take a moment to think about that and ponder about why that is.

Quote

There are plenty of Native American bad stereotypes and themes as well. The number of times I see a dude with the same 'long black hair with feathers in it' is beyond counting. And that's just scratching the surface. Here's the modern SL's version of what I got when I typed 'Inca' in search back in 2009:

I think when it comes to being a person of color in SL, you just learn to chalk it up and move on, whenever you encounter something like that, because of how widespread and prevalent it has become. I've also been to that Amazon sim - A friend of mine claimed he was accosted by a group of women who were dressed in full Incan regalia. LOL I've never had such an experience there, so I can only take his word for it.

Quote

It's a tricky space for me as a person of color who is mixed... because every single group I am descended from views me just breathing on this planet as appropriating from them...
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/changes-over-the-years-journeying-through-myself/
I'm both part of the problem Kristen refers to, and a victim of it as well - I belong to all and none of these groups at the same time.

All you can really do in the end, is be yourself and live your SL the way you want to.

As long as you aren't hurting anyone in the process - what I nor anyone else thinks should matter. I don't play SL that much these days, because for me, the entire climate has changed (and not necessarily for the better), not to mention that RL is often busy, so I don't have as much free time as I once did to log in. I still like to hop onto the forum now and again to see what's happening though.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Kristen Beornssen

[Destiny Marques]

On 3/27/2018 at 7:32 PM, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

My daughter is mixed, since my husband is white and been married over 30 years. And we have saw a lot together.

Congratulations on your 30 year union! My husband and I have been together for about half as long.

[Pussycat Catnap]

17 hours ago, Kristen Beornssen said:

 

I think when it comes to being a person of color in SL, you just learn to chalk it up and move on, whenever you encounter something like that, because of how widespread and prevalent it has become. I've also been to that Amazon sim - A friend of mine claimed he was accosted by a group of women who were dressed in full Incan regalia. LOL I've never had such an experience there, so I can only take his word for it.

This is what a woman in 'full Incan regalia' actually looks like.

I highly suspect I will NEVER encounter anyone looking like this in that Amazon sim. This is Hilaria Supa; the second of 2 Quechua women in the Peruvian Congress, who insisted on taking her oath of office in Quechua and not Spanish. The Peruvian Congress has treated both of these women as if they were a national shame, for daring to dress and speak 'native' in a country that only a decade or two ago was still force sterilizing the native people (Under the Japanese president - I do not know if that policy ended after him).

I'm very bad at 'chalking up' racist conduct. I've been a fighter all my life and I have never stood for any white person getting their privilege over me. THAT causes me no end of trouble in SL, as SL's users are basically surrounded in an extreme bubble of white privilege... But I'm fine with that. I'd rather be bloodied in a fight than peacefully without my self respect. Though I also know that not everyone is conditioned to fight 24/7...

 

Decked out for the tourists it looks, but here are what REAL Mountain Amazons (Quechua) look like:

 

Of course the 'Amazon' sim is about the lowlands rather than my grandmother's people. But even there, you will NOT find naked blond women...

Both highland and lowland Amazonian people have become something of a 'living zoo' in Peru and Brazil, so when googling what we look like, you need to think twice about whether or not that image was staged for a 'show / exhibit'. We're surrounded by multiple nations that have near to fully genocidal views of their native people... And many folks get by the same way Africans in Europe had to as recently as the 1950s: living in zoos or becoming 'tourist spots'... There's also at least one if not more 'Japanese Porn' companies that make movies about 'women from Japan' going to the Jungles of Africa or Jungles of the Amazon to run around naked and have sex with people dressed up to pretend to be locals...
- So don't just trust those google images...

 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Pussycat Catnap

[Berksey]

It's awesome how black men never rape white women, that's a great statistic to find. That means my past doesn't exist, it was all just some racial stereotype, and my friends who have also been raped by black men can breathe easy that now, it never happened. Thank you so much.

And I love when people try to play the race card on me and make me feel like I'm wrong because I'm "white". I'm a Jew. Where's my 40 dunes and a camel? It's been over 2000 years, for Abraham's sake!

Just my two cents, since Love's avatar & fashion advice thread is now a soapbox for butthurt and emotional one-up-personship. This is why I cringe at every forum except the scripting forum. For shame. If people want attention and argument, there's that Facebook thing.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Berksey

[Pussycat Catnap]

Some Colonizer doesn't understand the difference between the statistics as a whole and isolated rare examples.

We've got DNA proof now to show what the reality really is at a statistical level.

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Pussycat Catnap

[Destiny Marques]

3 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

This is what a woman in 'full Incan regalia' actually looks like.

I highly suspect I will NEVER encounter anyone looking like this in that Amazon sim. This is Hilaria Supa; the second of 2 Quechua women in the Peruvian Congress, who insisted on taking her oath of office in Quechua and not Spanish. The Peruvian Congress has treated both of these women as if they were a national shame, for daring to dress and speak 'native' in a country that only a decade or two ago was still force sterilizing the native people (Under the Japanese president - I do not know if that policy ended after him).

I'm very bad at 'chalking up' racist conduct. I've been a fighter all my life and I have never stood for any white person getting their privilege over me. THAT causes me no end of trouble in SL, as SL's users are basically surrounded in an extreme bubble of white privilege... But I'm fine with that. I'd rather be bloodied in a fight than peacefully without my self respect. Though I also know that not everyone is conditioned to fight 24/7...

 

Decked out for the tourists it looks, but here are what REAL Mountain Amazons (Quechua) look like:

 

Of course the 'Amazon' sim is about the lowlands rather than my grandmother's people. But even there, you will NOT find naked blond women...

Both highland and lowland Amazonian people have become something of a 'living zoo' in Peru and Brazil, so when googling what we look like, you need to think twice about whether or not that image was staged for a 'show / exhibit'. We're surrounded by multiple nations that have near to fully genocidal views of their native people... And many folks get by the same way Africans in Europe had to as recently as the 1950s: living in zoos or becoming 'tourist spots'... There's also at least one if not more 'Japanese Porn' companies that make movies about 'women from Japan' going to the Jungles of Africa or Jungles of the Amazon to run around naked and have sex with people dressed up to pretend to be locals...
- So don't just trust those google images...

 

 

 

He was exaggerating when he said "full Incan regalia", he was a drama queen who loved to embellish the truth as to make his stories more interesting, so I always took what he said with a huge grain of salt. LolWhen I said "chalking up", I meant it in the sense that I choose my battles in matter of importance to me. I'm a Leo that's typical behavior for us. And when it comes to racism in SL, it depends on the severity of it. I'm not going to run around snapping at every black "actor" who I see on an interracial sex sim, or pen off an angry notecard to some creator asking them why have they chosen to appropriate a culture, which most don't actually experience in RL. 

OR become belligerent after some guy or girl in "black face" messages me while trying to pass themselves off as something they are not. I will however ask them why did they choose to be a person of color in SL, which I have done in the past, and they will explain to me why they have chosen to be that. Then depending on their answer, explain to them how that negatively impacts the actual POC who play SL and about the stigma and stereotypes we have to deal with just to get by in a virtual world. My life doesn't revolve around SL, so it low on the scale of "battles" I choose to fight.

With that said, when it comes to RL, that is an entirely different matter all together. I've known people who were beaten to death simply because of the color of their skin. Harassed by police and told to go back to their "side of town" although their "side of town" was just as white as the one they were being told to leave. I can give story upon story of discrimination that's either happened to myself, to a friend or loved one. It's things like this that I save the "fighting for".Not every battle is worth fighting over, when it comes to that in SL. Now if someone came up to me and called me the "n-word" inworld, which they have, or asked me something stupid such as "Can you tell me what it's like to live in the ghetto?" Or something ridiculous like that, then hell ya, I will break my virtual foot off in their ass. Ghetto? Fool, I grew up in a racially diverse middle class suburb, why don't YOU tell me what the ghetto is like whenever you find out!

I'm familiar with what Peruvians and Amazonians look like.  Here in Dallas, we get people from everywhere, so depending on your social circle, you are bound to encounter a variety of different people from nearly every corner of the globe at some point in time. Interesting reading though, thanks for the cultural lesson.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Kristen Beornssen

[Destiny Marques]

47 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Some Colonizer doesn't understand the difference between the statistics as a whole and isolated rare examples.

We've got DNA proof now to show what the reality really is at a statistical level.

 

*passes you the boxing gloves* You'll be Rocky and I'll be Mickey.

"Go for the ribs! "

Edited March 30, 2018 by Kristen Beornssen

[Berksey]

It's amazing how on-topic this entire site just became, and this thread in particular. And all I had to do was finally use the "Ignore Users" feature.

\o/ I can actually read what this thread is about now! \o/

Love, I think your avi is pretty, do what looks and feels good to you, it's your SL.