I just left a plantation tour in Louisiana. I have a lot to say…
SAY IT!
I honestly thought I knew everything about slavery. Not so.
The owner of this particular plantation had it built by slaves for 3 years. Every brick was handmade. Over 120,000 bricks on 2,000+ acres of land (this place was huge.) The clay used for the bricks came from the Mississippi River. The majority of the slaves are buried under the Levees and water. Some are buried with their Masters. Not allowed to live with them but could be dead with them.
Before you enter the house, there’s a list of slaves who lived here including their age and how much they were purchased for. 124 total. Some slaves were worth as little as $25. As young as 5 years old.
On this particular plantation, the owner was big on punishment…he used noise making neck restraints. Imagine three 4lb balls around your neck with bells inside. Children were restrained by ankle locks that connected between their ankles.
This was a sugar cane plantation, one the worst practices to involve slaves because of its danger. A lot of slaves were decapitated, amputees and killed from the fields and machinery. A lot of kids lost their lives creating sugar. Speaking of children, a child stood in the living room and operated the fan with a string while guests ate dinner. As young as 3 years old.
Here’s what shook me even further: Before the Civil War, a lot of slave owners were going in debt and could not afford their properties and were not producing enough cotton and sugar to maintain their lifestyles. Slaves were used as HUMAN CREDIT CARDS. Slaves were a guaranteed line of credit. You could get HALF of your property’s value depending on how many healthy and able slaves you owned.
My people were human credit cards and lines of credit to BANKS. We were property. We were labeled as equipment and nothing more.
There is no such thing as a good slave owner. They owned my PEOPLE and used them as checks and balances. This cycle continues with prison and brutality. I do not want to hear shit about “Why can only Black people say this or that?” I don’t want to hear shit about “we’re all human.”
And by the way, not one of those slaves are at rest. Those spirits were so alive, you could feel their presence, their pain and someday, their revenge.
The front of the house and yard. This plantation was huge. Just thinking about my ancestors tending to all this land…
SOME of the enslaved names, ages, race and purchase price.
The living room.
Interior.
The dining room. That piece hanging above the table is ORIGINAL to the house. That’s the fan that a slave as young as 3 years old had to operate manually with a string.
The view from the balcony in the main hallway. This is how they looked over the slaves while they worked in the yard.
*sigh* Names of the enslaved that occupied the shacks. Children included. Their names are written inside one of the shacks. I’m not sure if there are other names inside other shacks because I could only handle 2. After I saw the punishment equipment, I left.
Slave Shacks. These are NOT the original shacks. These were built to imitate them.
Slaves for Sale Ads.
The landscape of Slavery throughout the United States in 1860. JUST 1860. Let that sink in.
Note: The last time the home was OWNED by a Louisiana citizen was 1972. This is her original bedroom, her lipstick is STILL on the dresser. This is why the house has been updated since slavery times because it was occupied up until 1972. Regardless, this used to be where house slaves slept.
This really fuckin happened, don’t let white people tell you that it’s in the past & to let it go.
Steven Hawking‘s life proves what we should all know to be true: that intelligence without compassion is meaningless, and that every person who is truly intelligent knows caring deeply for others is the smartest choice a person can make
This is so unbelievably far from being true.
Intelligence sans compassion and empathy is what drives this world. If we care, we limit the possibilities of our minds.
very edgy, anyway i think there’s a sale at Hot Topic right now you might be interested in that
Sometimes I just think about how sensitive Keith really is, as much as he’s seen to be aloof all the time he is arguably one of the most emotionally sensitive Paladins on the team.
Oh yeah, definitely. Because “emotionally sensitive” covers a lot of ground–and because we already know all of Keith’s emotions are heightened due to his galra nature–I’m going to focus on “sensitivity” in terms of sympathy and concern for the wellbeing of others. The first instance that really comes to mind is when Pidge tries to leave. She justifies it by saying she needs to find her family, but Keith quickly cuts her off with, “Everyone in the universe has families.” Except of course for him, given that he grew up all alone with nothing but a knife to remember his parents by. Even without that very personal connection, even when he has no family himself, Keith is still willing to stake his life on all this because there are other families that need protecting, and they’re just as important. That speaks volumes about his capacity for empathy, something that a few of the other paladins criminally underestimate.
Something else that I’ll never be able to let go of is just how unsettling it was to watch the other paladins respond to Ulaz’s death. Let’s pull Shiro aside for a moment–he has a very personal connection to Ulaz, this familiarity with him. Ulaz was the one who took the risk to help him escape, and Shiro feels indebted to him. He trusts Ulaz. So when that ultimate sacrifice is made, it just claws away at him. The other paladins, though? When Ulaz blows himself to pieces for their sake? They cheer. There’s no way around how sickening that honestly is, no way to escape the fact that one of their allies literally took his life for them–but because they were decidedly less human, the other paladins lacked the ability to empathize with him. Everyone except Keith. Just look at the contrast between Keith’s expression and the others’, and you’ll see exactly just how poignant this is:
The other paladins are smiling, cheering, they’re so happy and relieved. Ulaz dying also has the added “bonus” of essentially getting him out of their way, one less galra to worry about. There’s no excusing the fact that thy never really saw Ulaz as a person–and even in death, they never truly treat his final act as a redemption. Ulaz’s loss is a matter of convenience for them, and none of them even have the sympathy to pretend to mourn. Meanwhile Keith actually feels for Ulaz. And Shiro. Because Shiro’s clearly shaken by all this, because he’s genuinely hurt and grieving.
Keith is the only one who thinks to try and reassure Shiro, to go over and apologize for his treatment of Ulaz, to express his sympathies and try and give Shiro the support he grievously needs. “Sorry we doubted Ulaz, Shiro. He saved all our lives.” Even more telling, the optimal term he uses there is we. He doesn’t just apologize for his own behavior, he apologizes on behalf of the entire team. Even if they themselves won’t. He knows as a team they should be doing better, and he has the initiative to take the first few steps in that direction. He sees Ulaz as a person, a sign of empathy at this point that everyone but Shiro severely lacks.
Even more telling, Keith defends Shiro. When Allura tries to insinuate Ulaz’s sacrifice was just a ploy, Shiro is obviously hurt. But he’s still reeling from the grief, too exhausted and drained to put much heat in his words. So Keith goes on the offensive for him, ready to fight on his behalf. Keith’s always been very sensitive to Shiro’s needs, and he’s always been someone who will protect others first and foremost. Shiro is achingly vulnerable here, and Keith puts himself up as a wall between him and Allura.
And again, when it comes to defending others, we know anyone who abuses their position of power to wreak havoc on civilians–that strikes a cord with Keith. We see it when he makes it his personal mission to end Zarkon’s reign and confronts him alone in the finale of season 1. We see it when he lashes out at King Lubos for the atrocities committed against his people. “You’re no King.” At the core of his being, Keith fulfills the romantic knight archetype in every sense of the word. He possess a time honored sense of chivalry that compels him to always safeguard the weak and vulnerable–he was one of the first ones to really take his duty as a paladin seriously. And honestly, a code of chivalry like that only arises when someone is extremely empathetic towards their cause and the wellbeing of others. The thought of others suffering at the hands of a corrupt leader just absolutely makes his blood boil.
And before anyone says that Keith only cares about Shiro and neglects the other paladins or something, he’s very much someone who is often willing to hear them out and respond to their needs, he really does care about the whole team. When Pidge decides to stay, Keith is the first one to welcome her back–“Good to have you back on the team.” When Allura gives him the cold shoulder, he never complains or guilt trips her. When she tries to apologize, he even says it’s okay and she doesn’t have to.
When Hunk was panicking in the Weblum, Keith was able to ground him and tried to take his mind off things with some light humor. He saw Hunk was stressed and helped him work through it. Later, when Allura is completely mesmerized by the other reality’s thriving Altea, Keith is the one who tries to talk her out of it. And later, when she laments her misplaced trust, Keith is there to reassure her–“You didn’t know.” Even when Lance expresses his concerns to Keith about six people on a five Lion team, Keith tells him not to leave and tries to just take his mind off things. Keith has never been the cold person his team mistook him for back in season 1.
To clarify before this next part, I absolutely love the BOM. I’ll be the first one to defend them. But I think Keith is very much more in tune with his sensitive side and emotional pathos than the others. He’s never fully able to commit to the mission over his own emotions, something Kolivan berates him for–“You cannot allow your feelings to cloud your judgement. You have in the past.” This is evident in even the episode right before, where Keith risks everything–the mission, his own life–to go back for Shiro and Lotor. His teammate’s response to this is simply, “Then you’ll die with them.”
Again, Keith’s desire to protect others overrides his dedication to the mission. We also see this with Regris. And of course, it was always evident with Shiro long before that. There’s also the mere fact that he joined the BOM in the first place because he was sick of posturing in parades instead of being out there in the field actually doing something to stop Lotor. Because essentially, that’s how Keith viewed it. To interject here really quick, Keith’s sensitivity can be self-destructive as well–when it becomes apparent Regris is a lost cause, Kolivan just picks Keith up and drags him out against his will. Kolivan impresses the importance of self-preservation on Keith, and it’s painfully obvious he doesn’t want to lose anymore of his men.
In fact, given how new to everything Keith is, I’d argue Kolivan breaks a bit of protocol himself to ensure Keith’s safety. He has a soft spot for new recruits like that I think–and especially for Keith, who is so new to both his galra heritage and the BOM. From Kolivan’s prospective, it’s important for Keith to pick and choose his battles, to not be so quick to throw his life away for others’ sakes. From Keith’s point of view, it’s always better to sacrifice himself than risk the safety of those he cares about. And his feelings are just a vital character trait he’ll never be able to let go of.
And yes, I’m also going to throw that bit from the Weblum episode back in here, because I think it’s one of those instances where we see a lot of Keith’s character drop in just a few lines. “They look like dead planets…Something tells me they died an unnatural death.” When Keith says that, everything from tone of voice and inflection to the look on his face clearly expresses just how distraught he is. His heart breaks for those planets and the life that was lost too soon. Again, Keith is very sensitive to the wellbeing of others. Even people who may have existed eons ago.
Returning to Shiro for a moment, so much of season 3 just gives immense incite to his character. While everyone else is running missions like normal and pretending everything’s fine, Keith’s still out there scouting debris day after day. Even months later, when everyone has long since given up on Shiro, Keith remains ever loyal, ever faithful. He refuses to abandon him, something he cannot fathom even considering. Not after everything Shiro had ever did for him. The fact that everyone else is so quick to forget and move on feels like a betrayal. His grief-laden outbursts speak to a much deeper loss than anyone else–a very personal loss. He lashes out at the others as if to say, None of you care about him like I do. And he aches with the cruel injustice of it all.
And even when Kuron is safely back on the ship, he remains bedridden for days. And who is it at his bedside? Who is the one person “Shiro” trusts to see him so vulnerable, the one person that care for Shiro more than anyone else? The person that vows to save his life, “as many times as it takes?” Even torn asunder by the universe, Keith and Shiro will always sink back into each other’s orbit. Keith, like a knight in shining armor, will always ensure it. His unconditional, unabashed love for Shiro appears to be a double-edged sword. But it’s one he’ll carry with him always. By nature, Keith is a very passionate, loving person who’s just very protective of others.
This is evil. A teenager in Nova Scotia faces up to 10 years in prison for typing a URL into an address bar. This news article was the original source but this site offers a more concise write-up (with all the same info that’s in the CBC article):
A 19 year old in Nova Scotia wanted to learn more about the provincial teachers’ dispute, so he filed some Freedom of Information requests; he wasn’t satisfied with the response so he decided to dig through other documents the province had released under open records laws to look for more, but couldn’t find a search tool that was adequate to the job.
He noticed that the URL for the response to his request ended with a long number, and by changing that number (by adding or subtracting from it), he could access other public documents published by the government in response to public requests.
So he wrote a one-line program to grab all the public records, planning on searching them once they were on his hard-drive. On Wednesday morning, 15 police officers raided his home, terrorising his family (including his very young siblings – they scooped one of his younger brothers up as he was walking home from school, arresting him on the street) and seizing all the family’s electronics, including the phone and computer his father depends on for his livelihood. The young man now faces criminal charges and possible jail-time.
The reason for the raid and the arrests? The government had unwisely uploaded private, confidential documents to its open directory of public open records, and so they are charging this teen with improperly accessing these confidential documents.
I find that the CBC article, while containing all the same info, is excessively credulous towards the Nova Scotia government’s framing of the issue. E.g.:
19-year-old says he believed documents were ‘free to just download’ from province’s FOIPOP web portal
[PLEASE KEEP ANONYMOUS BC I DON’T WANT TO BE FIRED]
I’m a bra fitter in the UK. Won’t name the store, but it’s one that’s internationally popular so occasionally we get people from abroad coming in to bulk-buy English bras because they fit better and are cheaper.
A few months ago a German woman, who didn’t speak any English, came in for a fitting with her two daughters to translate for her. What she didn’t know was that I speak near-fluent German because I used to work in Bochum as a primary school teacher.
I fitted her for an hour (she wanted a LOT) and she slagged me off the whole time - “she doesn’t know what she’s doing / she’s so young– have they given me an intern? I want a professional / I won’t take fashion advice from a girl that heavy / she’s not using european sizing, is she stupid” - and her daughters translated VERY favourably, both of them clearly quite uncomfortable with the situation.
I put on a brave face for the whole thing, pretending not to notice, and then as I was putting in her customer info (we keep a record of all our customers) one of the daughters complimented me for pronouncing their surname correctly.
I said thanks, and casually dropped into conversation - in perfect German - that I used to live in Germany and spoke the language.
Watching all the colour drain from that woman’s face as she realised what just happened, and seeing her two daughters quietly lose their collective shit behind her, was pretty glorious. Almost made it worth it.
“If a society puts half its children into short skirts and warns them not to move in ways that reveal their panties, while putting the other half into jeans and overalls and encouraging them to climb trees, play ball, and participate in other vigorous outdoor games; if later, during adolescence, the children who have been wearing trousers are urged to “eat like growing boys,” while the children in skirts are warned to watch their weight and not get fat; if the half in jeans runs around in sneakers or boots, while the half in skirts totters about on spike heels, then these two groups of people will be biologically as well as socially different. Their muscles will be different, as will their reflexes, posture, arms, legs and feet, hand-eye coordination, and so on. Similarly, people who spend eight hours a day in an office working at a typewriter or a visual display terminal will be biologically different from those who work on construction jobs. There is no way to sort the biological and social components that produce these differences. We cannot sort nature from nurture when we confront group differences in societies in which people from different races, classes, and sexes do not have equal access to resources and power, and therefore live in different environments. Sex-typed generalizations, such as that men are heavier, taller, or stronger than women, obscure the diversity among women and among men and the extensive overlaps between them… Most women and men fall within the same range of heights, weights, and strengths, three variables that depend a great deal on how we have grown up and live. We all know that first-generation Americans, on average, are taller than their immigrant parents and that men who do physical labor, on average, are stronger than male college professors. But we forget to look for the obvious reasons for differences when confronted with assertions like ‘Men are stronger than women.’ We should be asking: ‘Which men?’ and ‘What do they do?’ There may be biologically based average differences between women and men, but these are interwoven with a host of social differences from which we cannot disentangle them.”
i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, having a thing for vampires does NOT make you a monster fucker, vampires are ENTRY-LEVEL, you don’t get fully initiated into the club until you want to bone AT LEAST one demon,
Oh my god, food extract is not the same as an essential oil.
Food extract is the flavoring of something cooked down into a carrier oil or alcohol that is safe for human ingestion.
Essential oil is the pure extract of the plant refined down and distilled for concentrated medicinal purposes to a significantly higher strength than simply adding ground up mint leaves to your water. The two are not comparable in any way.
Cinnamon extract and cinnamon essential oil are not the same thing.
One is about 100 times the strength of the other and can also cause acute organ failure. I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the food extract.
Sweet gods I’m not trying to be mean, I want you to be aware and safe and stop putting yourselves and others at risk. Please.
Like maybe my tone is hard to read, maybe it just comes off as really angry but it’s not, it’s fear and worry. I read posts and clutch my head in alarm going “no! No! That’s how people die!” And then I get exasperated because a bunch of people not formally qualified chime in with “um actually this is a lie” and it’s not, it’s really, really not.
I’m not some big pharma advocate. I’m a crunchy witch hippy just like you with salt rock lamps and rose quartz all over my house. I just happen to have spent the last 15 years of my life studying the actual science of holistic medicines and I’m trying to help you not get hurt (or worse) becuase you trusted a sales person with no idea what the ever loving hell they were talking about beyond a sales pitch designed to maximize profit. Gah.
I see this so often in the Mommy world. There was a lady not long ago in one of the mom groups who was really worried about her toddler. He’d had a persistent cough for weeks and the doctor couldn’t figure out why. Someone asked, well what have to tried to treat it with, so far? She said she was using a humidifier, honey, and eucalyptus EO in the shower every night.
Yeah.
In case you were wondering, eucalyptus can cause respiratory distress in young children.
Sadly I don’t wonder. I have a friend whose daughter died from a home made menthol oil chest rub. She wasn’t even ten yet, but her mom– a qualified aromatherapist– thought she’d be old enough to handle it. She went into respitory distress and died seizing in her mother’s arms on route to the hospital. It was one of the most harrowing stories I had to listen to during my holistic training. She stood up there, on this podium next to a bunch of ponzy scheme essential oil sellers who looked like they wanted the floor to swallow them, and said “I killed my child with good intentions”.
I’ll never forget the look on her face.
So to reiterate, children under the age of ten should not be directly exposed to things like eucalyptus oil, peppermint or wintergreen. If you are using such things in your house and your child starts to complain of headaches, lethargy and general “feel worse”, don’t just assume it’s the cold/flu. Those are all signs of menthol sensitivity and they only get worse with increased exposure. Ventilate the room, take them outside if you can until the air clears. Do not apply again.
Rapid onset wheezing may be a sign of allergic reaction or possible asthma attack triggered by the menthol too. If they tell you their chest is warm or fuzzy when you use it, that’s another sign it’s not going down well with them. Again, ventilate the area or remove anything you applied to them. Administer inhalers if necessary. Watch for any more labored breathing or if they suddenly go limp or you can’t wake them up. If they do call 911.
This can also apply to people with allergies and asthma who are otherwise healthy.
One of the safest, natural ways to alleviate congestion is with just pure good old fashioned warm steam. Keep the air moist, drink plenty of warm fluids. Menthol can help relieve the feeling of congestion, but there’s limited evidence to suggest it actually clears the airways. And for the love of god don’t inhale mustard or horseradish (I’ve seen that suggestion on posts too, though how you’d get those oils I don’t know). That’s literally what tear gas is made of.
I apologize sincerely for bringing this long post back into your lives, fam, but I’m getting inundated with questions about what can the possible harm be if you dab a little neat peppermint oil on your child’s skin to help them with a little head cold, and this is the most succinct way I can put it.
The harm you may do, is in fact death. I am not telling you these things to be a kill joy, I’m telling you so you won’t accidentally kill yours.
get them randomly assigned as your lab partner for a whole semester, get trapped with them on a broken elevator for ten hours, and they’re your employee trainer for your new job at McDonalds
the important rule to this version is that no matter who is with you, you HAVE to be stuck in the elevator for the full ten hours. I don’t care if you’re in there with Thor himself. You can’t get out.
new ask game: send three characters and i’ll tell you which i’d rather have
• get randomly assigned as your lab partner for a whole semester,
• get trapped with on a broken elevator for ten hours
• get as my employee trainer for my new job at McDonalds
