send me a ☀ if you see me as predominantly feminine, a ★ if you see me as predominantly androgynous, or a ☁ if you see me as predominantly masculine

I leave Tumblr for half a day and then find Hong Kong all over my dash. 

All I have to say is 

• I am very suspicious of people saying “stop a second Tiananmen Square Massacre happening” because wow way to conflate the two and ignore the different factors in each. Not to mention people love holding up the Tiananmen Square Protests as a “students’ fight for democracy against communism” and that’s just so overly-simplistic? And then they use this as a reason to “help fight democracy by getting the US gov involved” and it’s like NOOOOOO do you understand what you’re doing, you’re just making things worse STOP STOP ABORT 
• On that note, don’t sign the whitehouse petition. Again, no US intervention wanted nope. 
• PLEASE don’t compare this to Ferguson. Repeat- don’t compare this to Ferguson. Ferguson has a different situation that is centered around anti-blackness and black genocide in the US, for gods sake don’t compare it to what’s happening in Hong Kong 
• What’s happening in Hong Kong is serious, no doubt about that, and yes we should support the protestors there. But NOT in a way that misrepresents the issue and helps foster US imperialism. 

OK.. but… the Hon Kong protestors have been actively using Hands Up Don’t Shoot. Obviously the issues at stake her shouldn’t be compared but I really don’t see the error in comparing the strength of oppressed people fighting for what is right. We saw the same with Gaza— two completely different issues, but there are comparisons/connections to be made in the peoples’ struggle, and above all else in the way these oppressed people connected with each other— by sharing via twitter for example tips to dealing with tear gas in the eyes. I mean certainly no one is going to compare anti-blackness to the democratic issues happening between Hong Kong and Beijing but I don’t see why people are so opposed to the very idea of connecting these events. It’s important to realize the difference between the peoples and politics and axes of oppression involved, I know, but I think the unification of oppressed people is a powerful and touching thing. Of course perhaps I’ve entirely misunderstood the post, wouldn’t be the first time for me…

Most of the Hong Kong protestors who are holding up their hands aren’t doing it purposefully as an act of solidarity towards Ferguson. Most people in Hong Kong have never heard of Ferguson. Instead it came out of training where the protest leaders taught everyone to hold their hands up so that they don’t appear threatening to the police. So no, it’s not like Gaza and Ferguson where there was an intentional bond of solidarity. 

The problem I really have with HK<->Ferguson is that a lot of supporters of the HK protestors have been circulating this photo: 

Do you see what’s problematic about this? It gives the Hong Kong protesters a good rep but it does so at the expense of pretty much every other protest that has happened or is happening- including Ferguson. 

There’s also this article which has been going around a lot too. 

Read between the lines. When people say “Look at these people who are getting hurt by the police even though they clean up after themselves and don’t cause vandalism, etc” they’re also saying “You only deserve civil treatment from the police/ government if you behave civil”. When the Ferguson Protests happened, a common argument that people used to justify the Police Brutality was that the protests were causing looting and vandalism. The Ferguson Protesters DESERVED police brutality was what they were basically saying. 

Plus, the reason behind the strong bond created between the people of Ferguson and Gaza is not just because of “police brutality”. It goes deeper than that. It goes into White Supremacy and Western Imperialism. It goes into the systematic connections between Black Genocide (The Prison Industrial Complex, Stop and Frisk) and the Israeli Apartheid. I recommend these two posts if you haven’t read them already.   

The situation in HK is slightly connected to that, when it comes to Western Imperialism and infringement on Civil Rights, but all in all it’s not as linked as Ferguson and Gaza are. Until the HK protestors themselves decide that they stand in solidarity with Ferguson, we can’t call that solidarity. 

Imagine your icon passionately singing along to High School Musical

whats a dishwashers favourite sport

dishwashers are inanimate objects and therefore cannot play sports, nor do they even have any concept of sports

bowling