Author: Kylie Brooks

I was out tonight to pick up packages that couldn’t be received by my apartment admin office. Tonight was the first snow day, and the snow has not been shovelled yet.

I am a wheelchair user. Winter sucks for me because of the snow. Why?

Because it is hard to go out in it, especially where it is not yet shovelled.

Also, the reactions of ambulatory people tonight were less than stellar. When I got stuck in snow a few times, no one helped or offered their help. I got out, fortunately, but help would have been great.

There are not two sides to everything. If there is only one valid side, deal with it and fuck your apathy.

Both are illegitimate settler colonial states. Instead of reforming the police, the illegitimate governments based on violence must be dissolved and all land must be returned to Indigenous people.

Following on from my last post, I had a realization: Audism and  phonocentrism disconnects Deaf people from hearing people. Altthough it is great if some Deaf people choose to interact only with Deaf people, most people in the world are hearing. That is just reality. Deaf people need the option to interact with hearing people too in accessible ways.

And no, not through interpreters please. Direct communication!!!!! Interpreters are there for very specific purposes: when two people are having long or complex conversations or which have specialized terminology, that’s when to use an interpreter if one of these people do not know the native language of the other.

For far too long, Deaf people have been left out of society. I am not talking about “diversity” or “inclusion” or anything of that sort, as we multi marginalized people know that strategy has failed.

Rather, society needs to center Deaf people. And no, that does not include using interpreters all the time, only where necessary.

Society needs to integrate Deaf people by:

• teaching hearing people the majority sign language of the area in which they reside – make it mandatory in elementary education just like spoken languages are mandatory
• accepting Deaf people
• stopping being audist and phonocentric
• giving Deaf people jobs

If Deaf people cannot socialize well with most hearing people except through interpreters, what hope is there of having friends or creating family with hearing people? We need choice.

Trans women, especially Black ones, often do not have true family. Relatives, sure, but family? Nope.

Family that…

• accepts us
• respects us
• supports us
• celebrates us

A lot of the time, our relatives are  not true family of this kind.

Never mind the problems that abound with creating new kids – these need to be discussed too.

Look, I know that we as Black people are sad, upset, angry, etc about Tamir Rice not getting justice. It is good we are feeling these, because we need to have global settler colonialism and anti blackness destroyed. We need the State and capitalism destroyed.

We need a revolution, not reform.

Reform won’t work.

Expecting white people to decide to grant justice to a dead Black kid in a white supremacist system is foolish.

Disclaimer: US specific general guidance, not specific legal advice. For legal advice pertaining to your specific situation, talk to an attorney. Do not speak to law enforcement officers.

Image: Lined paper titled Should You Speak To Law Enforcement Officers?

A drawn flowchart with the titled situation: Law enforcement officers would like to speak with you. All answers and responses eventually lead to Do not speak to law enforcement officers.

Are you being detained?

• If yes, is your lawyer present?
• If you don’t know, ask “Am I being detained?”
  • If the law enforcement officer says yes, you are being detained. Is your lawyer present?
  • If the law enforcement officer says no, you are NOT being detained. Ask “am I free to go?”
    • If the law enforcement officer says yes, leave immediately. Do not speak to law enforcement officers.
    • If the law enforcement officer says no, you are being detained. Is your lawyer present?
• If no, ask “Am I free to go?”
  • If the law enforcement officer says yes, leave immediately. Do not speak to law enforcement officers.
  • If the law enforcement officer says no, you are being detained. Is your lawyer present?

If you are being detained…

Is your lawyer present?

• No – demand to speak to an attorney. Do not speak to law enforcement officers.
• Yes:
  • Does your lawyer think you should talk to law enforcement officers?
    • No: Do not speak to law enforcement officers.
    • Yes: Fire your lawyer. Do not speak to law enforcement officers.

The only things you need ever say to law enforcement are:

• Am I being detained?
• Am I free to go?
• I would like to speak to an attorney.

Credit:

Twitter, @oaklandElle.

Patreon: patreon.com/armageddon

 

My thoughts on the topic of tipping that has been happening for maybe a few days or so on Twitter:

(This applies to sit down restaurants in the US and Canada)

• Until this discussion came up, I didn’t  really understand that tipping was paying a server for their service. So let’s just repeat that, heck let’s bold it: TIPPING = COMPENSATION (PAYMENT) OF A SERVER FOR THEIR SERVICE. I wasn’t really told this all my life. Yes, I was told that tipping is required but I wasn’t told why.

TIPPING = PAYMENT OF A SERVER FOR THEIR SERVICE

• Don’t go if you can’t afford to tip. That is unfair to everyone working at the restaurant and it is stealing from the server.
• Tipping artificially lowers the price of food sold at sit down restaurants where tipping is required and passes the extra cost – which should be paid by the restaurants – onto the consumer.
• Instead of tipping, prices at sit down restaurants should be raised to reflect the extra value of the servers and the servers should be compensated with the price increase.
• We have fast food restaurants already – the difference in cost just reflects what happens at each kind of restaurant, and sit down restaurants should be valued accordingly.
• At the moment, tipping culture is in place. I repeat: Don’t go if you can’t afford to tip. That is unfair to everyone working at the restaurant and it is stealing from the server.
• If service from the server is extremely poor, well they still worked for you. TIPPING = PAYMENT OF A SERVER FOR THEIR SERVICE. Don’t pay them too little because of poor service.
• Service does not include intentional oppression or total refusal to change their behavior after being called on unintentional oppression. If that happens to you, it is up to you what to do re: tipping.

Enough with this phrase, abled people. Here’s why:

Everyone has different abilities.

Not everyone has disabilities.

There is SO much you are saying by this conflation, but the most problematic aspect of this is that you are perpetuating the notion that our everyday lives as disabled people/people with disabilities are special because we do things differently.

Actually, no, our everyday lives are mundane most of the time. We do the same things you do, just in different ways. Saying that those different ways equal disability leads to inspiration porn.

From an email by ATTN: about Sandra Bland:

“the responsibility to create a more racially empathetic and tolerant society falls upon all of us”

Nope, not true.

And a society in which race exists, um… Just no. Fuck race.