18 MILLION RISING

“Spring-Autumn,” a collection of photos of youth and their elders switching clothes, proves Yves Saint Laurent right: fashion fades, but style is eternal.
[x]

“Spring-Autumn,” a collection of photos of youth and their elders switching clothes, proves Yves Saint Laurent right: fashion fades, but style is eternal.

[x]

Business Baby is the new Business Cat.
[x]

Business Baby is the new Business Cat.

[x]

To honor the Day of Remembrance, POTUS met with Japanese American WWII veterans at the White House today.

blackedouthistory:

Info: Tam Tran and Cinthya Felix were revered young leaders in the undocumented community. Tam was Vietnamese and born in Germany; Cinthya was born in Mexico. Both were undocumented and unafraid, and both graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles where they helped found IDEAS at UCLA. Sisters in the struggle, they exemplified humble and courageous leadership. They were among the first undocumented graduate students in the country—Tam was in a PhD program at Brown University, while Cinthya pursued a Master’s degree at Columbia University. Both were national advocates for passage of the federal DREAM Act, which would provide some undocumented youth a path to citizenship if they complete some college or U.S. military service. On May 15th, 2010, Tam and Cinthya were tragically killed by a drunk driver. Today, many Dreamers continue to organize in Tam & Cinthya’s memory, building on their legacy. The struggle of Tam & Cinthya, and all Dreamers, is inextricably linked to the struggle of the Black community as people of color living in America - we fight for the rights of our families and children to live with dignity.

FOR MORE INFO Search: “IDEAS at UCLA”; “Immigrant Youth empowerment conference”;
“DREAM Act”; “United We Dream”; “Dreamers”;

91 years ago today, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that Bhagat Singh Thind, an immigrant farmer who had served in the First World War, was not eligible for citizenship.

Why? Because South Asians didn’t count as “free white persons” under the law. Thind had made the case that, being from Punjab, he was literally Caucasian and therefore counted as white, and therefore should be eligible for citizenship. The Supreme Court disagreed, because “white persons” is apparently a phrase of common speech, not “scientific” term in this case. There’s a lot to unpack there.

Image: a 1923 editorial newspaper clipping applauding the decision via South Asian American Digital Archive. (I find it so striking that Thind in his dungarees is labeled “The Problem” in the clipping.)

72 years ago today, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 giving the War Department the authority to relocate civilians within the United States. He created the War Relocation Authority to oversee the relocation of Japanese Americans, many of whom were citizens, because the Army considered them a risk if Japan invaded the United States.

Milton Eisenhower, Director of the War Relocation Authority, justified the relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans saying that “some” Japanese Americans were “potentially dangerous,” and that it was impossible to tell which, so all Japanese Americans, regardless of citizenship, birth, age, or any other factor, should be relocated.

I actually can’t.

Tomorrow, in Los Angeles, students at UCLA and USC invite the community to a forum about racism against Asian Americans, in response to (yet another) racist, sexist incident on campus at UCLA.

More information.

sugaryumyum:
“ Harnaam was just 11 years old when the beard started appearing and she spent her teenage years desperately trying to remove it. She would try to remove it by waxing twice a week.
The primary school teaching assistant endured vile abuse...

sugaryumyum:

Harnaam was just 11 years old when the beard started appearing and she spent her teenage years desperately trying to remove it. She would try to remove it by waxing twice a week.

The primary school teaching assistant endured vile abuse at school and would be stared at in the street. She became so self conscious she refused to leave her house, except to go to lessons. At her lowest point she began self harming and even considered taking her own life.

But at the age of 16, she found the courage to accept her facial hair after being baptised as a Sikh. The religion dictates that the body should be left in its natural state and body hair must be left to grow.

Harnaam was determined to show that she was beautiful no matter what she looked like.
Video

(via grrlyman-deactivated20141218)

Audre Lorde teaches us that we must transform ourselves to transform our society. Happy 80th birthday, warrior poet.