零 (ling)/30s (THEY/THEM/佢)
art tag: #a pile of bread
twitter ・ art blog ・ insp blog ・ ao3

“We have all heard the maxim “If you do not love yourself, you will be unable to love anyone else.” It sounds good. Yet more often than not we feel some degree of confusion when we hear this statement. The confusion arises because most people who think they are not lovable have this perception because at some point in their lives they were socialized to see themselves as unlovable by forces outside their control. We are not born knowing how to love anyone, either ourselves or somebody else. However, we are born able to respond to care. As we grow we can give and receive attention, affection, and joy. Whether we learn how to love ourselves and others will depend on the presence of a loving environment”
— Bell Hooks, All About Love (via abipolarblog)
earth-dad

Bell Hooks, All About Love (via abipolarblog)

eamo2747-deactivated20140924 sent
I'm confused about what Beethoven was doing in the black composers post. He was German.
takingbackourculture said

By golly gee! I keep forgetting that Black people didn’t exist until the Fresh Prince of Bel Air came on television! Or that Black people existed in anywhere else than Africa even with slavery going on :) My apologies.

Anyway, here’s proof that Beethoven was Black:

“… Said directly, Beethoven was a black man. Specifically, his mother was a Moor, that group of Muslim Northern Africans who conquered parts of Europe—making Spain their capital—for some 800 years.

In order to make such a substantial statement, presentation of verifiable evidence is compulsory. Let’s start with what some of Beethoven’s contemporaries and biographers say about his brown complexion:

Beethoven2

(Louis Letronne, Beethoven, 1814, pencil drawing.)

"Frederick Hertz, German anthropologist, used these terms to describe him: ‘Negroid traits, dark skin, flat, thick nose.’

Emil Ludwig, in his book ‘Beethoven,’ says: ‘His face reveals no trace of the German. He was so dark that people dubbed him Spagnol [dark-skinned].’

Fanny Giannatasio del Rio, in her book ‘An Unrequited Love: An Episode in the Life of Beethoven,’ wrote ‘His somewhat flat broad nose and rather wide mouth, his small piercing eyes and swarthy [dark] complexion, pockmarked into the bargain, gave him a strong resemblance to a mulatto.’

deathmaskdeathmask2
Beethoven’s death mask: profile and full face

C. Czerny stated, ‘His beard—he had not shaved for several days—made the lower part of his already brown face still darker.’

Following are one word descriptions of Beethoven from various writers: Grillparzer, ‘dark’; Bettina von Armin, ‘brown’; Schindler, ‘red and brown’; Rellstab, ‘brownish’; Gelinek, ‘short, dark.’

In Alexander Thayer’s Life of Beethoven, vol.1, p. 134,  the author states, “there is none of that obscurity which exalts one to write history as he would have it and not as it really was. The facts are too patent.” On this same page, he states that the German composer Franz Josef Haydn was referred to as a “Moor” by Prince Esterhazy, and Beethoven had “even more of the Moor in his looks.’ On p. 72, a Beethoven contemporary, Gottfried Fischer, describes him as round-nosed and of dark complexion. Also, he was called ‘der Spagnol’ (the Spaniard).

Other “patent” sources, of which there are many, include, but are not limited to, Beethoven by Maynard Solomon, p.78. He is described as having “thick, bristly coal-black hair” (in today’s parlance, we proudly call it ‘kinky’) and a ‘ruddy-complexioned face.’ In   Beethoven:  His Life and Times by Artes Orga, p.72, Beethoven’s pupil, Carl Czerny of the ‘School of Velocity’ fame, recalls that Beethoven’s ‘coal-black hair, cut a la Titus, stood up around his head [sounds almost like an Afro].  His black beard…darkened the lower part of his dark-complexioned face.’

  BeethovenCweb

Engraving by Blasius Hofel, Beethoven, 1814, color facsimile of engraving after a pencil drawing by Louis Letronne. This engraving was regarded in Beethoven’s circle as particularly lifelike. Beethoven himself thought highly of it, and gave several copies to his friends.

Beethoven, the Black Spaniard

(read more here)
deadcatwithaflamethrower

They whitewashed BEETHOVEN?  O_O

Thank you, history/fact-checking Tumblr.

I now feel the need to go burn every white-skinned image of Beethoven I can find.

unimaginableunimaginable

beethoven was totally black! how do people not know this?

jk because erasure

thepianogirl1

I have been playing Beethoven’s music for 10+ years now and had absolutely no idea he was black.
My life has been a lie.

cubbyzissou

OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT.

I HAVE A BACHELOR DEGREE IN MUSIC, MY MAJOR WAS “MUSIC HISTORY, THEORY, AND LITERATURE”

I TOOK MULTIPLE CLASSES SPECIFICALLY IN BEETHOVEN’S STRING QUARTETS AND MY SCHOOL HAD AN INTERNATIONAL BEETHOVEN SYMPOSIUM WHERE THERE WERE PAPERS ON THINGS LIKE THE KIND OF FUCKING PAAAAAAPER HE DID HIS MANUSCRIPTS ON, IN DIFFERENT CITIES, TO SEE WHERE AND WHEN HE WROTE SPECIFIC SNIPPETS OF MUSIC.

NEVER IN MY EDUCATION OR READINGS DID I EITHER

A) NOTICE THIS

B) WAS SPECIFICALLY TOLD THIS.

I think there’s a combination of systemic racism in this, and my own internalized racism. I have, in fact, read Maynard Solomon’s biography and didn’t pick up on this. I have read the Czerny sources as well. My Beethoven teacher (Bill Kinderman) is one of the top Beethoven scholars in the world, and I don’t remember hearing any of this from him.

I even did a semester of graduate work in musicology, specifically focusing on the Beethoven string quartets (I really fucking love those things) and we never spoke about this.

I cannot say I am in any way surprised at this. I am embarrassed, angry, and upset that this was erased from my DECADES of music education.

Which doesn’t surprise me at all, because classical music is very specifically in our culture for white people, especially men, especially upper class white men.

Oof, this one is going to take a while to fully fucking digest, I am in angry tears.

socialjusticekoolaid

The Ferguson City Council convened for the first time since Mike Brown’s death, and proved that they literally give no fucks about what the community has to say. Added to their vague, paltry proposed reforms, seems real change will have to come in Ferguson via the ballot box. I don’t care where you live folks— let this be a lesson in voting/participating in your local elections and government! #staywoke #farfromover 

nappynomad

My people getting it!

raresenses

these people are the real heroes. not the military, not politicians, not the Hollywood actors. they risked their lives and livelihoods to challenge white supremacy and institutionalized racism.

prokopetz

Today on Social Anxiety Theatre: mentally rehearsing elaborate justifications for completely innocuous actions just in case some hypothetical interlocutor demands an explanation.

averagebare

one time i was walking across the courtyard and some kids were clustered around where the seagulls always are and then this kid fuckin GRABBED ONE OUT OF THE AIR and i was literally so fucking amazed but all his friends were like “tyrone put that shit down” and “again tyrone?? really??” which is even better because it means he was a habitual seagull catcher 

“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.”
— Robert J. C. Young, Postcolonialism, A Very Short Introduction  (via thenegrotude)
earth-dad

Robert J. C. Young, Postcolonialism, A Very Short Introduction  (via thenegrotude)

qiowder

ok i thought about this for like 5 mins dont ask me for explanations i dont have them

  • gintoki: hufflepuff
  • kagura: supposed to be slytherin but chose demanded gryffindor because she “looks better in red”
  • shinpachi: the hat was like “glasses??? must be another ravenclaw” (hes a gryffindor at heart)
  • katsura: gryffindor?? ravenclaw???
  • takasugi: slytherin or hufflepuff idk
  • sakamoto: hes a textbook slytherin come on
  • hijikata: hufflepuff
  • tsukuyo: hufflepuff
  • otae: gryffindor
miraclemodus

hat goes on gintoki, before it can do anything gin thinks super hard “PUT ME NEXT TO THE KITCHEN FOR SECRET NIGHTTIME DESSERTS”, hat sighs “hufflepuff.” it works out for the best

kagura puts a booger on the hat and sits at the gryffindor table. the hat didn’t even get to say anything.

the hat doesn’t know what to do with shinpachi and kind of slides down the front of his face until it touches the glasses and then is like “oh, yes! now i understand. go be smart, glasses-kun”

katsura is gryffindor. the hat is overwhelmed by the deep devotion to The Cause (whatever The Cause is in HP universe, probably being vegan? cruelty-free quills? bombing the ministry of magic?) and also overwhelmed because what is that duck thing? pigeon? but legs. gryphon? is that some kind of fucked up gryphon. GRYFFINDOR, PLEASE LEAVE GOODBYE

takasugi puts on the hat and it goes wild. “augh what do i even do you’re so good and you are going to be so bad and you’re so brave and smart and love your friends and you are going to burn everything.” it puts him in hufflepuff because it hopes that maybe it can avert the shitty terrible turn for the worse that will happen by putting him in Power Of Friendship house, but alas. 

hat barely touches sakamoto’s head before hollering “slytherin”. sakamoto laughs and laughs, because seriously, snakes kinda look like dicks, what the fuck! aha ha ha! he’s also pureblood, his folks were both death eaters, and he’s like “well i mean i’m a pacifist” and honestly, not taking sides is equivalent to not doing the right thing. slytherin. his parents are proud and he’s able to make a lot of good contacts and he starts up a real decent potion ingredient trading company as soon as he graduates. he’s good at potions and astronomy and he plays quiddich for the first few years but eventually he’s too long and gangly to maneuver a broom well.

hijikata is mad about hufflepuff. he lives next to the food so he can’t sneak cigarettes w/out the house elves finding out. he can’t steal mayo because shitty wizard school doesn’t believe in mayo, it’s all pumpkin juice and turkey legs and meat pies and he just wants some freaking rice with some freaking mayonnaise, is that so much to ask? 

tsukyou is head girl and super insecure about it, she assumed it was a mistake, she assumes every good mark she gets is a mistake, except for in Defense Against Dark Arts. before school, when she was little, her guardian taught her a lot about combat spells.. she’s so good at divination. she knows exactly when creepy dudes will get their asses kicked (by her). 

otae is a beater for the quiddich team for like, five games. she gets kicked off because she always fouls people and gets taken off the field within five minutes. she is very lovely and popular and gets ok grades and is excellent at transfiguration. kondo usually has some kind of weird ape face. maybe it’s transfiguration, maybe its his actual face. who cares, otae has just punted him into the whomping willow and he’s getting decimated, this is awesome.

platerade sent
I'm.....?!?!? Last night i dreamt that sachan helped me break out of azkaban and now tonight you're sorting gintama characters into houses. I feel dazed and weak.

i feel like the main character in a shounen manga where i discover i have magical powers and i have to save the world with them but its actually just a really specific kind of cosmic knowledge only to do with gintama stuff and its useless.

that sounds like a cool dream though

riningear

casual racism includes:

the way people trivialize black women so much to the point where fat black women are constantly the subject of gifs and nobody will admit that it’s because they enjoy the stereotype of the “big black ghetto woman” doing something like “ahh praise da lawd” or “ohh babe” or some shit like that 

riningear

the fact that this got no notes speaks volumes about how in denial you people are 

#