Beth Macbain

Oh dear... have we made the forum racists, bigots, and misogynists uncomfortable? They don’t like people being intolerant of their beliefs? They don’t like the bickering that happens when they make statements that are dismissive or insulting to POC (and other decent human beings) and people push back? Welcome to 2020, the year when it’s no longer enough to simply not be a racist. Moving forward we must be anti-racist as well, and that means being utterly intolerant of racists, pushing back when we see them, hear them, or read their words, speaking up to them, speaking out about them, and fighting them if necessary. I won’t be losing any sleep over upsetting the racists. shrugs

Dear god, Luna! You could at least hide that behind a spoiler tag for those of us who get nauseated by the sight of his face! Christ, that is an ugly man. Is that what it looks like when a body rots from the inside out?

Bey dropped a new song for Juneteenth. I’m still mad at her for not kicking Jay to the curb when he cheated on her with Becky, but this is an awesome song.

Your other 572 words disagree with you, but okay.

This will be shocking to literally no one who has ever read one of your posts, but you are wrong. This psychopathic jackass calls his method "Killology". No, seriously, he does. He has been one of the most popular police trainers and motivational speakers in the country. Killology.

Google is your friend. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jun/12/ryan-fournier/conservative-pundits-share-false-claim-about-black/

They may end up kicking me off when they discover that I joined to be the voice of the non-Christians... I know a lot of us are just learning about Juneteenth today - I think it's important to note that this day of freedom came two years AFTER the Emancipation Proclamation, and slavery wasn't officially outlawed until December when the 13th Amendment was ratified. And while we celebrate today, it's also important to see how on the very first Juneteenth in 1865, the fine white abolitionists of the North wanted to make certain that the newly freed slaves had just better behave themselves. "On June 18, Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government. The following day, standing on the balcony of Galveston's Ashton Villa, Granger read aloud the contents of "General Order No. 3", announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves: The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere." Let's celebrate our butts off today, and remember that there is still work to be done tomorrow. ❤️❤️❤️

I've mentioned that I work for a human services agency. This morning our (extremely white and conservative) CEO sent staff an email outlining the first steps we are taking to becoming an anti-racist agency. The words were chosen very deliberately to state that simply not being racist isn't enough - we will be taking concrete steps to work with and support BLM to become anti-racist. After it was shared with staff, it was shared with the public. We know we are going to get some backlash from our very conservative, very white donors, but we've decided that taking this stand is unquestionably the right thing to do. I'm incredibly proud, and also happy on a personal level to have been asked to be a member of our Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

It’s really interesting to check this thread after a day when there are several pages of conversation to catch up on and you begin to see just how some people will take something they’ve heard or read but never bothered to research, and twist that tiny little nugget into an entire narrative that is so far beyond reality that there is no bringing them back. It’s how people become like Alex Jones. Too stubborn and prideful to admit they aren’t the smartest people in the room, so they just start doubling down and making things up to fit their own story until it gets to a point where they’ve forgotten they were just making up hypotheticals and believe the lunacy they fabricated. They repeat their fabricated hypotheticals to anyone who will listen - most will see them for the lunatics they are, but then there are the gullible and the stupid who just eat it up and then they spread it, and before long you’ve got Qanon and Pizzagate. Pride goeth before a fall, and that entire branch of Trump/Jones/Limbaugh/Hannity/Carlson-believing dingalings are inching ever closer to that fall.

I’m just curious so I have to ask - have you ever traveled beyond the San Fernando Valley? Have you actually seen the rest of LA County or the state or the rest of the country?

Soooooo... today Atlanta announced murder charges against one single police officer for shooting a black man in the back from 18 feet away, fully aware the man was not armed (the taser had been fired twice. It can only be fired twice), kicking the man instead of rendering aid after shooting him in the back, shot into another car where people were, you know, just sitting in the Wendy’s drive-thru waiting for their Baconators, and pretty much the entire Atlanta PD walked off the job tonight in protest of a murderer being charged with murder, but the police aren’t racist? Nah, they’re totally racist. The sad thing is that over half the dept are POC which shows just how deeply insidious the systemic racism runs. They’ve turned them on themselves.

He’s a terrible human being. No, he’s not even human. I just donated to his opponent because, seriously, **** his ******** *********** ************ face.

We need to lighten things up a little bit just for a moment with a shining example of (embarrassing) white privilege. And for those unaware, Matt Gaetz, the rude shouting Florida man who is so concerned about his black children, has no children at all of any color. It sure is nice to see a black man own a white man for once, huh? Metaphorically speaking, of course, not literally... Can you spot the white privilege? We should make this a game!

These conversations are important and necessary. This is only one of about a dozen like this I’m involved in through family, friends, work, Twitter, Instagram, FB... but that’s just the beginning of the tip of the big ol’ white iceberg we have to break apart. This conversation is more frustrating than most because of the handful of people from outside the US who can’t even admit that whites are a privileged race so there’s no talk of solutions to be had - to them there is no problem to fix. In coming up with solutions, there’s too much for one person. I’ve had to look at what I want to do, then figured out what I actually can do. The first and easiest for me is to support my local organizations (and BLMUK thanks to Extrude) with some cash. The harder bit that I’m taking on is going after my city’s Fraternal Order of Police. My hill to die is getting power taken away from them so they can’t keep hiding and protecting bad cops, and silencing the good ones when they want to speak up. The cops that killed Breonna Taylor still have their jobs and still haven’t been charged, and I’ve recently learned things about how the union has supported the bad cop that fired the gun through the closed window for years and years and he’s done other hellish things and they protected him and MADE HIM A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE THAT OVERSEES THE DISCIPLINE OF COPS. Every single day I’m contacting my governor, my mayor, my city councilman, the police department itself AND cc’ing the FOP so they know my intent, along with my local BLM chapter, a couple of local Black politicians, and some journalists. I’m not just screeching at them. I’m outlining suggestions and ideas and ways to implement changes, how to pay for them, and why the changes ultimately will be beneficial to everyone, including the police. And voting. My state's primary is next week, and then comes the task of getting rid of Trump, yes, but equally important is getting rid of Mitch effing McConnell. In the primary, we vote with our hearts so I’ll be voting for Charles Booker to go after Mitch in November, but Amy McGrath is going to win, and then I’ll do everything I can to help her put Mitch out to pasture. So pick a couple places where you can fight the fight. Contact an activist in your community and ask them what they need if you don’t have ideas, but don’t expect them to walk you through it. They’re busy as hell, and really, we caused the problems so we need to fix them, so they might point you in a direction but then you have to run with it. Just do something. Don’t wait for someone else.

Better an SJW than a KKK.

Oh... huh. Look who’s killing cops! Hint: It’s not BLM or Antifa. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-16/suspects-charged-killing-santa-cruz-cop-and-oakland-federal-officer

I made it 34 seconds.

I’m telling y’all, it’s like Emily Litella was reincarnated and the rest of us are Jane Curtain wondering how TF we got here. So much whitesplaining.

Nah.

I want so badly put a laugh emoji on this but I obviously can’t because the killing of the two black trans women is horrifying. But that confused emoji has me laughing my arse off.

If anyone here has a reason to hate @Ashlyn Voir, it’s me. Y’all don’t even know the half of it. Strange what happens, though, when you stop just hearing a person’s words while you’re thinking about what to clap back with and start listening instead, and try to see the person.

I've been enjoying the #PrideMonthPuppo hashtag on Twitter today. Dogs AND rainbows!

I didn't say it was from sex with anyone else! 😜

I have a lot to add here, including regarding @JanuarySwan's incredibly vile rant accusing me... actually, no, calling me a racist, something I never did to her. However, I can't stop laughing at the arrogant notion of whats-his-face up there that Australia is a bastion of acceptance. Perhaps instead of this ridiculous insanity about... ... it might be nice to consider that maybe, just maybe, people of color in Australia don't feel quite as adamant as your white butt does that everything is just hunky-dory. It's rarely black people, or brown people, or native, aboriginal, and indigenous people, and since COVID-19, Asian people, who say that racism isn't as big of a problem as (black, brown, native, aboriginal, indigenous, Asian) people make it out to be. I'm reading about the BLM protests that have happened throughout Australia. Thousands of people are not protesting due to the state of things in America. Y'all got your own racism (and homophobia) to deal with. You've caused your own issues.