The 'We are the 53%' Tumblr is Heartbreaking
Forbes: Contributor E.D. Kain, 10/13/2011 @ 12:16PM
I have perused both the ‘We are the 99%’ Tumblr and the ‘We are the 53%’ Tumblr and I’ve come to this conclusion: the latter is far more heartbreaking than the former, if unintentionally so.
For one thing, most of the fifty-three-percenters are probably not actually in the 53%. Many describe a life of hardship, unemployment or underemployment, and dependence on government jobs and services. Take this one, for instance:
After this young woman’s father was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, he was told by the doctor to take it easy since he’s a manual laborer. Yet he went back to work full-time, working 12 hours a day, six days a week. She writes, “The cancer still grows. That is the American dream.”
Tell me this isn’t heartbreaking. Not just the story, but the sentiment.
The notion that this is the American dream, that men diagnosed with a horrible cancer should work 72 hours a week to support their families, is deeply tragic. There ought to be better visions of society than this.
I think that’s what the Occupy Wall Street protesters are saying: We should be able to craft a more human economy that doesn’t allow this sort of thing to happen, that rewards hard work and alleviates suffering and risk.
Source is FORBES, people. FORBES!!
My ancestors? Came over here doing UNPAID labor. Sunup to Sundown. But I doubt that this child would want to hear about that.
IRL goth, metal, punk communities can be uncomfortable to navigate imo (goth clubs have both been fun and rage inducing for me for various reasons). The ratio of fun and awesome people have fortunately outweighed the annoying assholish ones.
If you want a tiny peek into the feeling, I'd recommend the Afro-Punk documentary.
...I'll be paying more attention to you from now on.
Are you a goth?
/nostalgia
When I first started going to goth clubs, I went to one in D.C. where a number of black and latino goths frequent. I made the mistake of writing this experience down where some of my white goth acquaintances could read and it was a shitfest. A bunch of "why can't we be colorblind?" crap.
I find that the asshole people in goth either want everyone to be colorblind, don't think black people can be goths or fetishize us.
Some folks are just assholes too. I remember going to Dracula's Ball in Philly years ago waiting in line and some white dudebro dressed as a pirate/new romantic looking guy saying the N word a lot and there was one other black guy near me and he was like, "It's cool, it's cool!" and I was like WTF?! Of course he also told me I'd be pretty if I lost weight so I'm sure he was just an overall asshole.
CGL and cosplay, urgh. Or rather, I think in some of the right communities it can be incredibly pleasant and supportive; but I don't really look for them online fearing of bursting a few small vessels.
A bit OT: how do you feel about Steampunk? I have mixed feelings about it but I don't want to speak too much (yet) because I'm really interested on how others see it.
(also hello other severely tokophobic person how you doing?)
lol I'm doing fine. How about you (other than learning about sub-cultural white people)?
Pretty much every lolita that has claimed that black people have no place in the fashion has ALWAYS looked like shit. As I've said once before, Black women ARE in your fashion, and we're rocking the shit out of it, and all some of these lolitas can do is hate; Hate on us for looking better than them in a fashion that ORIGINATES IN JAPAN.
So then I googled African American lolitas and I found two pictures. The rest were pictures of generic African American people.
In general, sad to say, wherever you find white people, you will find a good amount of racism.
I was referring to the 53% movement as a whole. I have yet to see any person of color participating in this little blog/movement/whatever you want to call it; they've all been white people and the majority of the ones I've seen have been white college students. Most of them tell some tale of woe about how their parents, grandparents, or some ancestor of theirs immigrated here (voluntarily) to make a better life for their family, worked their ass off, and...well, is still lower-middle or working class.
It's like they're thinking they should get some kind of cookie for their white ancestors getting rubber-stamped at Ellis Island and allowed to move wherever they wanted to to work for pay, whereas my ancestors were kidnapped from their homes, dragged to the shore, packed into slave ships, witnessed their comrades dying around them and sat in filth and corpses for months as they crossed the Atlantic, and then were sold off to the highest bidder. Then legally enslaved, beaten, and forced to work the land for free. And I'm middle-class now and I STILL think people should pay their goddamn taxes.
It's not that I don't have sympathy for her father - I do. And I have sympathy for her, too. But at the same time, I'm really fucking annoyed that 1) she thinks she has a lock on ancestor sob stories and 2) she's holding this up as a reason AGAINST Occupy Wall Street, as she apparently has no brain!
But yeah, I'm probably missing a lot of cultural context. I'm just scratching my head at using this sort of story *against* the Wall Street Protests.