Dalton couple fights to regain custody of their five children | timesfreepress.com
do you see the irony here???
birth parents have to work. they don’t make good money, they can’t afford a car…so TAKE THEIR CHILDREN AWAY.
*foster parents* (who want to adopt)—make $90,000 a YEAR *JUST TO TAKE CARE OF THOSE SAME KIDS*.
do you see that??? do you see what classism looks like as it plays out against immigrant communities? do you see how nativism and white supremacy plays out there? we won’t give “illegalz” that same $90,000 dollars to take care of their own kids. becuz they’re illegalz. they don’t get benefits for being here in the US.
but US citizens can take those children and raise them—and get $90,000 dollars a year.
(via midwestmountainmama)
This doesn’t even make sense. The parents aren’t abusive or neglectful. They simply don’t have the resources to take care of these children on their own, but rather than giving the resources to the parents, the children are placed in foster care and resources are given to the foster parents. This is absolutely the most absurd thing I’ve read all day.
(via greaterthanlapsed)
Yes, today is 26/11. Three years ago, Mumbai was ablaze for more than 72 hours, so many people — civilians and officials alike — dead exposing the shambles of the city’s defense strategies. It’s great to see you remember it, most people don’t know it even happened. But let’s put this in…
“What’s Wrong with First World Problems”
This times a million, plus the fact that everyone talking about “first world problems” is bragging about them.
(via katherinestasaph)
lol u guise being startled at art is a first world problem lololololol
(via torayot)
**To those who think international students of color have no business demanding rights in the US**
I’ll stop demanding my rights,
When I can open the history books and see my people’s faces
When I can turn on the TV and see them as humans, not caricatures
When you stop complimenting me on my English like you’re doing me a goddamn favor
(Who the hell are you to ascribe yourself the importance of evaluating my language skills?
I’ve been reading Shakespeare on my own since I was 14 and I can out-write you and yours
any damn day of the week).
I’ll “stop complaining”
When international students are treated as human beings
When we can work to support ourselves through college
When we can speak our languages without you complaining
When you step out of your privileged bubble and acknowledge that the REST OF THE WORLD has accents, and no, they do not make us stupider or less developed than you. WE are bi, tri and multi-lingual, while YOU complain if someone sounds even slightly different than you when speaking the same damn language. Still think we’re the backward ones?
I’ll quit speaking up
When you acknowledge my people’s contributions you so eagerly gobble up
Like yoga,
Like spicy, nourishing food.
Like Buddhism.
Like turquoise and magenta on silk saris
Like henna.
I’ll “go back” and “get out”
As soon as you pull out the corporations from our countries that employ (exploit) my people for sub-human wages to make your sport-shoes and your jeans
As soon as you pack up your military bases
As soon as you return the 400 plus years of wealth and resources plundered from our nations
As soon as you give me back the fluency in my mother’s language I sacrificed for fluency in yours, just so I could have a better chance in the world.
I’ll stop demanding my rights
When my passport grants me hassle-free travel to any part of the world I choose
When my face and skin are hair are advertised as beautiful
When I can get married without your government breathing down my neck
When I can get married at all
When I don’t have to fight for my people’s representation in schoolbooks and classrooms
When I don’t have to counter lies, myths and denial of my people’s humanity every single day.
So, yes, I’ll stop demanding
When my rights
my people’s rights
Everywhere around the whole freaking world
Are as guaranteed
As yours.
No. There is no overpopulation problem. There’s an over-consumption problem, a racism problem, a blaming-the-poor problem.
What countries are responsible for the most environmental damage? The wealthy countries, with low population growth rates.
What countries are responsible for exponential resource depletion? The wealthy countries. The US, for example, has 5% of the world’s population and consumes 25-30% of the world’s resources, and contributes 30% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
The population growth rate is slowing down, and we will reach our peak in approximately 2050, at 9 billion. There is enough food produced right now to feed that many people.
People aren’t starving because of our population. The environment isn’t being destroyed because of population. So why are we blaming our problems on population? The only reason I can think of is to lift the blame from the wealthy nations, from ourselves. Treat people in the Third World like over-breeding cattle who can’t think for themselves. Force sterilisation on unwilling women. Breathe a sigh of guilty relief when a few of those cattle die from a natural disaster (that was most likely caused by global warming, a problem created by industrialised nations).
Stop playing the anti-PC game: You know, the one where you claim that anybody who suggests being humane and looking at facts is just being “politically correct.”
I’m glad some of you found solace in the fact that the OP feels the same way you do. Just know that that doesn’t make you any more of a moral person.
And it’s not even fear of folk in the Third World having babies. It’s fear of PoC EVERYWHERE having kids and outpacing Whites in “their” countries as well. Thanks to the internet, I’ve seen more and more supposedly less racist, more open-minded Europeans complain that there are way more PoC in their countries than before. Whites in the settler nations (Canada, U.S. Australia, New Zealand) complain about the increase in population of various PoC, immigrant and native-born. All this supposedly environmentally conscious worry over “overpopulation” is really White panic over the increase in the population of the world’s non-Whites.
Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times:
The streets were mostly empty. I stopped to photograph some settlers marking the Jewish holiday of Purim. They were passing around a bottle of wine, toasting the holiday, nothing out of the ordinary. I noticed a Palestinian woman walking along the shut-down stores. A group of settlers were walking in the middle of the street in the opposite direction when one of them took a step towards her. I instinctually raised the camera.
She didn’t scream or stop, she hurried up the street and vanished around the corner. I was left angered and saddened — as if the wine hit me.
Derailment Bingo by piranha @ Dreamwidth (http://piranha.dreamwidth.org/445505.html)
Audre Lorde, “Age, Race and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” (via uprightcitizens)
Ahh, this is one of my favourite Audre Lorde quotes. I tried explaining this to another Asian woman in an anti-racism workshop when she said that it’s not productive to just call someone an asshole and walk away. If we wanted change, we needed to explain it to them in a way that is “accessible.” My response is that sometimes I need to just call someone an asshole because I’m so sick and tired of explaining things to white people especially when they are capable of learning for themselves. It’s a drain of energy for me and for our communities. How are we supposed to heal when we’re constantly draining our energy on white folks who many of the time, refuse to listen. There’s much more at stake in those conversations when our humanity is put on the line and our pain is often invalidated? So whatever, I reserve the right to call someone an asshole when they’re being racist and I can provide an explanation when I damn well feel like it.
(via mytongueisforked)
These are the 99 percent, or at least they used to be.
- Boy’s death highlights US health debate
- Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance
- Deaths at West Virginia Mine Raise Issues About Safety
- Investigators: Massey Energy Falsified Safety Record at Upper Big Branch Mine
- Massey Energy CEO to retire amid mine probes
- Suicides in the downturn raise worries about recession’s real cost
- Record 2.9 Million U.S. Properties Receive Foreclosure Filings in 2010 Despite 30-Month Low in December
- U.S. Suicide on Rise: Middle-Aged at Risk
- New Estimate Puts Gulf Oil Leak at 205 Million Gallons
- Presidential Panel Blames Companies for ‘Avoidable’ Gulf Oil Spill
- BP CEO Tony Hayward to Resign, Get $17 Million in Severance
- At Many Homes, More Profit and Less Nursing
I recently had the pleasure of viewing Jessie, one of your newest shows that aired on September 30th of this year, featuring Sweet Life on Deck star Debbie Ryan as a small town Texas teen who travels to New York to pursue her dreams of living an adventurous life and takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy family with 4 children and a pet kimodo dragon. The 4 children are adopted, and I commend your company for attempting to expose American youth to different cultures. However, I did find several problems with the episode I watched, entitled “Used Karma”.
- within the first few lines, one of the children, Emma Ross, is told upon asking Jessie, her nanny, that quilted toilet paper is the best method of bra stuffing. By perpetuating the idea that bigger breasts mean a chance to move forward in the world, Emma is not being encouraged to use her mind to succeed in her life, but rather her body to get ahead
- In the very next line Tony, the door man, comes in with a basket of presents for Jessie, of which includes a can of pepper spray, to which Jessie makes the joke “Is this in case I get a-salted?” to which the people in the room laugh. Sexual assault in the streets of New York is rampant, and by making a joke out of it, your writing team is making the victims of assault seem illegitimate
- In the next scene, we see Ravi, a small boy adopted from India hanging from a hook in a sleeping bag. When he is woken up by his adoptive brother, he exclaims “Great Ganesh, I’m a human samosa!” This is incredibly stereotypical, and, unlike American phrasing, Indian people do not typically take a gods name when they are exclaiming something. The stereotyping of Indian people in adult television leads to massive amounts of prejudice and, as an Indian person myself, I find it incredibly offensive that this is in a children’s show. This cultural stereotyping is not found in the character of Zuri Ross. We do not see her doing things that one would consider typical of a person from Africa, so why use offensive stereotypes with the Indian character?
- The character of Ravi then attempts to explain the concept of Karma, saying that “if you are bad, then the universe will beat you like a water buffalo” If your company is planning on portraying Ravi as a Hindu character, to which the previous line has suggested, then might I suggest looking up Hinduism, reading any of the holy texts, or even just skimming the Wikipedia page on the subject? Hindu’s are pacifists, they wouldn’t ever say something like that, especially a brand new adoptee off the streets of India. An American raised Indian child, maybe, but definitely not a kid who has spent a good portion of his life in India following Hinduism.
- Jessie then laughs when reminiscing about the previous joke she made about assault. see the above explanation as to why this is wrong.
- In the next scene, Jessie walks down the stairs dressed in jeans and a large sweatshirt and asks how she looks. Zuri replies “You look like Cinderella” and then, as an aside to Emma, says “before the bippity bopity boo.” This show is aimed at children age 6 to 12, so why is the main character going on a date, and why is she being shamed for wearing a sweatshirt on a date. All this does is tell young girls that in order for a boy to like them, they need to dress nicely, as opposed to being a good conversationalist with an open mind, strong passions on different subjects, and a diverse array of interests. But apparently, as long as Jessie dresses pretty, Tony is sure to fall in love with her!
- And on that note, why is Jessie going on a date to begin with? isn’t she supposed to be taking care of these 4 children? While she was on this date Luke got locked out of the penthouse and mobbed by a pack of squirrels, both things that could have been avoided if she were actually doing her job.
- Luke then goes to Ravi asking how he can fix his karma, and here we find the most ridiculously stereotypical scene of Ravi in traditional garb, with incense lit and all of the chairs draped with panels of embroidered fabric. little Zuri has been dressed up as the goddess Lakshmi, wearing a gold crown and sari. Ravi asks Luke to do several demeaning things, to which Luke complies. The problem with this is that your company is portraying Hinduism as a greedy, tit for tat type of foreign religion that is simply weird. A Hindu child raised in India would have simply forgiven Luke and it would be done with, but apparently showing forgiveness and kindness isn’t entertaining. Again, we see the absence of Jessie, who is supposed to be looking after these 4 kids, but is instead out on a date. She could have sat down with the kids and had a meaningful conversation about all of this, but instead, she is away and neglecting her duties. She was hired for a job that she isn’t doing at all, and as a result, the kids are running amok.
- Jessie finally comes back from her date with Tony, and in the process they stole an umbrella off a hot dog cart. In episodes of other series, when the main character steals something, they are reprimanded, they feel sorry, and return the item, but apparently, in this universe, it is perfectly acceptable to steal the umbrella of a hot dog vendor while it is raining.
- Jessie then maces Tony because he apparently leans in for a kiss. How about teaching young people the concept of consent, even when it comes to kissing. Jessie simply saying, “no, tony, I don’t like you and I don’t want to kiss you.” and then him saying, “oh I was just reaching for my jacket” and her replying with the word “awkward” would have been just as funny as the original script, but it would give some form of lesson to young people. Also, mace doesn’t just make you loose your vision for a few seconds. It can lead to epileptic fits and death, but apparently can just be used as a gag if the timing is right.
- Jessie then gets upstairs to find Luke out in the rain “cleaning himself of his karma” If she were home, that wouldn’t have happened, and if Ravi was written as a traditional Hindu character instead of a caricature of American stereotypes of Hindu characters, he wouldn’t have had Luke stand out in the rain in the first place.
- “like the merciless gaze of all knowing Kali” again, Hindu persons do not reference Gods in this manner, and giving no background to either Ganesh or Kali gives American audiences the idea that these Gods have no real meaning.
- So as we find out in the next scene, Tony actually was going to attempt to kiss Jessie, and just played in off as though he wanted to just get his jacket back. Jessie previously referenced that she liked Tony before the date. apparently the ongoing “sexual tension” between Tony and Jessie is going to continue. goody. I knew a contrived romance about a nanny of 4 children was what this story needed!
- In the next scene, Zuri, Emma, Ravi and Jessie are watching a movie, and Zuri says “Girl, don’t you go in that graveyard” to the screen. again, the perpetuation of stereotypes is transparent and gimmicky. Disney, as a company, you have the chance to put nifty ideas and challenging plots together, but perpetuating stereotypes based on race is so 1950’s. Zuri is an immigrant from Africa, she is not African American. Why don’t we see her culture shock, African references, and confusion about American culture? Is it because you don’t want to offend the African American population after the whole Princess and the Frog debacle, or is it easier to stereotype an Indian American person? my guess is that it is both.
And we come to the end of this 22 minute episode. In 22 minutes, this show has shown me two different cultural stereotypes, the concept that women must change their bodies in order to make her life better, that Hinduism is a massive joke, that shirking your responsibilities won’t get you fired, that sexual assault can be considered a punchline, and that mace wears off in about 20 seconds.
This show hit home for me personally on a lot of levels. I am a Hindu person who grew up in an Indian household, and I am a part time nanny to a wealthy family. By putting forth a show that perpetuates stereotypes and makes mysoginistic jokes, your company and the Disney writing team is giving off the idea that all of the things are perfectly fine because they are funny. They aren’t.
This show has a lot of potential in teaching about different cultures, the adjustment to life in America, getting a job away from home, and all of it can be done in a funny way, but the way the show is being written right now, all your company is doing is reinforcing outdated and offensive stereotypes, which shouldn’t be on children’s television.
Yours sincerely,
An Angry Viewer
Marya Mannes (via thoughtsdetained)
But let her ass be a brown, loud, aggressive, nappy headed single (or even uninterested in men *gasp) fat woman with credentials the size of Texas? Oh hell to the no. She got to go. She’s too much of a threat to the status quo.
(via sourcedumal)
