Ever notice how when white people are murdered/kidnapped/abused/etc, they get scholarships set up, foundations set up, parks named after them, or laws signed in to their home state to honor them, but when Black people suffer the same tragedies, we get… put on trial for our own deaths?
We get ignored. We get shoved out and told to get over it. We get told that it was expected, deserved, etc. Hm. I watch the same channel all day (Investigation Discovery) and it’s 90% crimes against/done by white people, so, it isn’t just “isolated” incidents I am alluding to.
The AMBER alert was created because of a white child. America’s Most Wanted was created over a white child. Are these things great institutions? Of course! Are they needed? Of course! Do they come through for those who need it most? Not often. America grieves only over white deaths. All else fall to the wayside unless we make enough “fuss”, and even then, we’re only allotted 3 months time… while others get 16 years (here’s looking at you America, and your obsession with Jon Benet Ramsey).
My fear of having a child grows more and more each day as I come to realize we are still only looked at as three-fifths of a person, not a whole individual with humanity and spirit.
Wow. Powerful post. It makes me think about Asha Degree. On February 14, 2000, 9-year-old Asha Degree left her home in Shelby, NC in the middle of the night and never came back. I really didn’t see the same type of attention given to her case as the Jon Benet Ramsey and other cases. I know why, but this post reminded me of her and her family. February 14 is her parents anniversary, so it’s especially hard on them. They’ve been in my heart every since this case opened more than 12 years ago. R. I. Power Asha.
http://www.wbtv.com/story/16931539/missing-young-girls-case-gets-new-light-12-years-after-disappearance
Thank you for sharing; there are many stories similar to this young girls’, and just the same, not getting the attention they need. It just saddens me we are not honored in our deaths — our deaths are not seen as beautiful. Our dead are never romanticized or even given their humanity.
I read an article where last year, more than half the missing people (accumulated, not JUST from 2011), were African-American. You wouldn’t know it by the way news outlets handle things.
fuck work, I just want to stay home and smoke joints and watch BSG until I pass out.
and maybe not smell like fucking pulled pork for five minutes.
ipen:
Beautiful Images Of Earth, Taken From A Satellite 450 Miles Up
When NASA first started putting things into space, it was with the express intent of finding out more about the planets and stars that surround us. It wasn’t until the mid ’70s that NASA decided to start studying our own planetary mass, launching a satellite program they called Landsat on July 23, 1972. Landsat, explained the director of the U.S. Geological Survey, would help America “inventory and manage the earth’s resources.”
There have been six other Landsat satellites since then (each one is designed to last around four years in orbit), capturing the changing face of the earth as it’s scarred by pollution, deforestation, development, and obviously, the passage of time. Right now we’re on number seven, a sophisticated earth-observing instrument that sends almost 600 images back to earth every day, supplying Google Earth and other programs with its imagery.
What’s really cool about Landsat, though, is that anyone can pay the USGS to access the data the satellite collects. The caveat is the $600 subscription fee, which may be chump change for Google, but not so for individuals with a penchant for earth watching.
Luckily, USGS anticipated public interest (and lucrative retail potential) in the stunning imagery picked up by Landsat. The Survey holds an annual Earth as Art exhibition that displays the most incredible images of the year at the National Library of Congress in D.C. There’s also an online store that sells posters of the images, each labeled with the words, “Satellite scene chosen for aesthetic interest rather than for scientific interpretation.” Some of the images depict natural phenomena, while others call attention to the ever-increasing havoc humans wreak upon the earth.
Pennywise (by Drop Dead Quirky)
I am really, really creeped out by this. In the best way.
Pulled pork tacos with cilantro, garlic, lime, pickled jalapeños and lime aioli <3 (Taken with instagram)