“My mom threw me out of the house at seventeen for getting pregnant, then had me arrested when I tried to get my clothes. Then she fucked the head of parole to try to keep me in jail. She was some prime pussy back then. But the warden did some tests on me and found out I was smart, so I got a scholarship to go anywhere in New York. I chose the Fashion Institute of Technology, which I hated. But by that time I was already getting work making costumes for the strippers and porn stars in Times Square. All my friends were gay people, because they never judged me. All I did was gay bars: drag queen contests, Crisco Disco, I loved the whole scene. And I couldn’t get enough of the costumes. My friend Paris used to sit at the bar and sell stolen clothes from Bergdorf and Lord and Taylors, back before they had sensor tags. So I had the best wardrobe: mink coats, 5 inch heels, stockings with seams up the back. I looked like a drag queen, honey. One night a Hasidic rabbi tried to pick me up because he thought I was a tranny. I had to tell him: ‘Baby, this is real fish!”
This is Part Two of her story according to the Humans of New York FB page.
Full disclaimer, I am a white woman supporting my native friend.
Apryl is a Native woman of the Mohawk Tribe, South Quebec, currently living in Alabama with her son. He’s in kindergarten this year. She’s raising him according to her culture and traditions. The following is all posted with her permission, .
Last Thursday, she gets this from his school:
She’s obviously concerned. So she writes into the teacher with the following:
And gets this Response:
……At which point ‘Concerned’ turns into ‘Disturbed’.
At which points she gets a phone call from the teacher. She described the following:
“So an admin called me. I started by explaining I am mohawk, where my community is, and how I’ve grown up in and am connected to my culture and people and am raising (Son) the same.
I pointed out I am Disturbed by my understanding of the activities planned and why. They claim to focus on local tribes, but teepees. I explained the history of the headdress craft. I pointed out that dressing up like am Indian for the day is racist as hell.
Then I had to explain what the term redface is because she kept insisting there would be no face paint.
She wishes they’d known I was native before because I would be a great resource for planning future events, but for this one it’s too late to make changes. Dressing up is just in good fun, her daughter did it when she was in kindergarten as well. Detailed some craft making a fringed vest with a paper bag? About how they’ve done this event for twenty years and no one has ever complained. The children really enjoy it every year. She’s willing to give my name and number to the Indian Ed teacher too discuss further events in the future and see about signing (Son) up for the class. (I sent the paperwork in. He wanted to try it. I did this months ago. Also, the fact that we’re native is on all his fucking paperwork).”
So she writes the principal.
And Gets this in Response.
If you wonder whether her son understands the situation:
In case anyone is having trouble with the pictures, or TLDR:
My friend’s six year old son, a Native boy of the Mohawk tribe, was going to be exposed to his entire grade imitating his cultural heritage, while simultaneously watching them mash some thousand or more respective native tribal cultures into a grab pot of ‘cool’ things to celebrate. They did not consult the local Chickasaw, Chocktaw, or Cherokee tribes to participate, consult, or teach at this event, and instead are going to have the children dress in whatever their white parents’ impression of ‘native attire’ is. They were informed a week ago that this was racist. Apryl has done her due diligence in explaining to them why. They told her to be quiet because the kids have fun and no one has ever complained before.
We are complaining now.
She has since written the superintendent of the school district, and submitted a complaint to the ACLU and several of her social media groups for native parents and communities.
If you have time, Feel free to drop a email or phone call to the principal and help explain why persisting in exposing children to stereotypes of cultures that suffered so greatly at the hands of white colonizers IS, and will ALWAYS BE, a bad idea.
Principal Alex Hughes
Ahughes@mcssk12.org
256.851.4670
THIS EVENT IS TOMORROW, it was NOT cancelled or even postponed to address these concerns. Tell Principal Hughes that is it is 2019, and this is unacceptable.
Oops I was trying to do 2 things at once and forgot this was dated so people know it’s current. My bad OP
This is vile and disgusting
“Oh, there’s no racism I can see"THE RACISM WAS JUST POINTED OUT BY A NATIVE PERSON. WHAT THE FUCK.
Actress Devery Jacobs, who plays Sam Black Crow on American Gods, took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with us about her favorite day, preferred theme song, and what she’d want her biopic to be called if one was ever to be released. Then we turned it into a dreamy movie poster. This is SDCC BioGIF.
If there was a biopic made about your life, what would it be called?
Rez Nerds.
What would be the tagline?
Geeks can be indigenous too!
What was the first thing you remember being a fan of?
It was obviously Disney. Like, everything Disney and probably The Lion King now.
If you had to live your life on repeat, what day would you choose to relive and why?
I’d chose to relive a trip that I took to New Zealand where I got to do a cultural exchange with a lot of Māori filmmakers as a part of the Māoriland Film Festival and we are like, right on the Pacific ocean and it was beautiful and amazing and I just felt so cool and happy that day.
Jimi Hendrix, Miami Pop Festival, May 18, 1968, his first as a headliner, by Ken Davidoff. The organizer was Michael Lang, who invited Jimi to his next festival as well: Woodstock.
“When someone has rejection from their mother and father, their family, they - when they get out in the world - they search. They search for someone to fill that void.”
Just so we’re clear, the reason a lot of people protest climate change isn’t because they like trees and hiking. It’s because we’re making the Earth unlivable for all humans, and that humans in the poorest countries are the ones worst hit.
Protesting climate change ain’t a white privilege thing. The people protesting climate change the hardest are Indigenous people, Island nation people, and poor people in hot countries. They’re terrified.
People are dying because of climate change. Climate change isn’t just killing our planet, it’s killing people, and it’s those who live in poverty stricken areas that are dying first. More than 2,300 people died in India during their heatwave last year, and it’s only getting worse.
Temperatures in some areas in North Africa and the Middle East are reaching as high as 140 F/ 60 C during the summer. Scientists are projecting that by the end of the century, unless we take drastic measures, these parts of the world will be entirely uninhabitable. We will actually have refugees from these areas fleeing their homes because they physically cannot survive in that environment.
