crudamoral:

absolutely exquisite photographs of james baldwin in turkey taken from yes magazine’s spread. inspiring, indeed. what spirited and brilliant soul wants to be my travel buddy and muse? let’s live.

(via shabazzpizazz)

jessehimself:

Aamna Aqeel ‘Be My Slave’ Shoot Is Yet Another Example Of ‘Racist’ Fashion Antics

News Flash: Slavery is not and will never be in vogue!

While most people don’t need such an obvious reminder, this pointed message goes out to Aamna Aqeel. The Pakistani designer has found herself in the middle of aracially charged backlash thanks to her editorial shoot entitled “Be My Slave.”

In the spread, which is published in Diva magazine, a model is seen dressed in various Ageel designs while being catered to by a dark-skinned little boy who looks a lot like a slave. Our assumes can’t be too far off considering the title of the story.

Since when did slavery become an appropriate marketing strategy? We’re shocked—as should anyone who lays eyes on the images. And thankfully we’re not alone.

The International Herald Tribune’s Salima Feerasta felt the need to address the “vile images of racism and exploitation” and deemed the story “inexcusable.” We couldn’t agree more.

Feerasta spoke to Aqueel, who denied any intention of racism in the story. In fact, the designer’s aim was to shed light on the issue of child labor. Aqueel said that the dark-skinned Baloch child was incidental. “He works in a garage and wanted some work.” As Feerasta so pointedly explains, Aqueel’s reasoning doesn’t add up and her message fails for many reasons.

It’s facetious of the designer to claim that she was trying to stimulate a debate on child labour. The model wearing her clothes is clearly comfortable with her dominant position. She is not made up in a way that shows her to be the villain of the piece. The use of a dark skinned child in a shoot entitled “Be My Slave” certainly reeks of racism, however much the designer may deny it. And if anything, the shoot seems to condone child labour.

Sadly, this incident will join the list of racially insensitive situations found throughout the fashion industry—from slave-inspired designs, the unapologetic use of Blackface,the whitewashing of runways and the total disregard of diversity. When will these type of gross attention-seeking antics and blatant examples racism end? Seriously.

via @HuffPo

homotography:

Emanuel Fuentes by Isidro de Quesada

(via vagabondaesthetics)

laeisapolu:

Theophilus London ft. Jesse Boykins III / Cold Pillow

Loved this mixtape.  Favourite Theophilus.

wahaladey:

Bill Withers - Something That Turns You On

(Source: Spotify, via clemntina)

satanic2chainz:

iridessence:

freshest-tittymilk:

colormelolita:

therealbitchpudding:

forteglyceride:

marinabramovic:

brittany-nicole:

No Hands PONPONPON // Waka Flocka vs Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

yoooooooooooo

this fucking foolishness is gonna be stuck in my head all goddamn week

I hate whoever made this *downloads*

Omg its back XD

IT’S BEEN TOO LONG

…. …. wow. i… actually really like it.

this shit is fantastic

crezias:

Listen, I know tumblr only cares about American news, but this is really fucking tragic, and if this doesn’t get an coverage I will be incredibly angry. 

The conservative’s bedroom tax has actually led to a woman taking her own life. Let me repeat that for you; a peice of government legislation had had such a detrimental impact on someone’s life that they wrote letters, packed up their things, and walked into the M4 in front of a lorry. The bedroom tax has only be in place for the last 5 weeks.

For those of you that don’t know, the bedroom tax isn’t technically a tax; if you’re living in a rented property, and have an extra bedroom, you’ll  have to pay a certain amount of money back to the government. Children under the age of 12 are expected to share with all their siblings, children under 16 are expected to share with their siblings of the same gender. The government placed no limits on how many children could be expected to share a room. It would have saved the government £490 million a year; the UK loses £5.2 Billion a year in tax evasion alone. [citation]

Stephanie Botrill, from Solihull, had lived in her house for 18 years, and her two children had, relatively recently moved into their own properties, one of them within the last year. She previously paid a rent of £320 a month, and bedroom tax would have meant she paid £400; she was having to starve herself to afford this. Let me reiterate that for you; a woman was having to go without food because of a cruel tory policy. The house the council offered her was nowhere near where she currently lived, and 30 minutes walk from the nearest bus station; she would have been nowhere near her family and friends. To make matters worse, the council said she’d have to pay for any damage to the house, which would have exceeded the £2000 she was given to move house.

Stephanie had been saying since the policy came in how she couldn’t cope. She even went to the GP, but only got sleeping pills. In the end, it all got too much, and she wrote letters to her children, grandson, friends, and neighbors  and walked into the M4, dying instantly. 

The Sunday People has photos of the letters, but I won’t post them because they broke my heart, but if you want to see them, they’re here 

As well as this, her family was struggling to pay for her funeral, so the Sunday People contributed. We live in a country where we can pay £10 million pounds for the funeral of a woman who called Nelson Mandela a terrorist, but someone’s grandmother kills herself because she can’t afford to live in the house she’d lived in for 18 years. I hope everyone feels thoroughly disgusted. 

The worst thing is, Stephanie’s story has a more extreme ending, but it’s fairly typical of a bedroom tax victim case. Although the tory’s policies targeted towards those on benefits claim to help to push people into work, and end a ‘something for nothing’ benefits system (and the whole thing reeks of deserving and undeserving poor) this is not the case at all. 

Take a guess at what percentage of the people receiving benefit in the UK are unemployed. Guess. I was way, way out. The actual breakdown is this 42.3% elderly, 20.8% low income, 18.4% families, 15.5% sick/disabled, 2.6% unemployed. Only 2.6% of those on benefits in this country are unemployed.

In addition to this, the people most likely to have spare bedrooms are older people, who’s children have left home. They are not people living off the tax payer, whatever that means, they are people who have lived their lives in cheap rental property who’s children have left home, and so rely on their friends, like my Nana does, for company. And David Cameron and his tory cronies want to move these people away from their communities, their friends, the brick and mortar they’ve made their home, because they have the cheek to have a couple of spare bedrooms.

I hope you’re angry, because I’m really fucking angry.

You know who has got spare bedrooms? David Cameron, who got lucky enough to be born to a millionaire and the daughter of a Baronet, and his wife Samantha who’s father is also a Baronet. His personal wealth has been estimated at £30 million, inherited from off-shore tax havens. Like I said earlier, the UK loses £5.2 Billion a year from men like Cameron. To misquote Obama, Cameron’s not the solution, he’s the problem.

Meanwhile, more people like Stephanie Botrill, hounded from the home she’d raised her children in, and the community where all her friends live, will probably walk in front of lorries.

To cut a long story short, if you even think about voting Tory in 2015, I hope you think about Stephanie Botrill, and I hope you never sleep again.

goodvibestrilllife:

Lifelong friends, Stevie Wonder and Muhammad Ali

(via shabazzpizazz)

Danni - Los Angeles - 2013

Tundae Mena

(Source: tundae, via abstrackafricana)

whatdoesthisbutton-do:

stylez1996:

i-was-so-alone-i-owe-you-so-much:

the-eleventh-blog:

the-nicest-asshole:

UK grading system
75-100 A+
70-74 A
64-69 A-
60-63 B+
55-59 B
50-54 B-
46-49 C+
43-45 C
38-42 C-
35-37 D
0-34

Time to move to the UK

ding dong u are wrong

• We don’t even have + or - grades, the most we have is A*, which in order to achieve that you have to be in the top 10% of the fucking country
• There isn’t even a ‘UK’ grading system because each constituent country of the UK has its own qualifications

and most importantly, before you go insulting millions of British students as though they don’t work as hard as you:

• Marking differs HUGELY not just between subjects but between YEARS. It takes into account how hard the paper is each year, so if the entire populace does badly, they lower the grade boundaries to reflect difficulty. AND TRUST ME, IT CAN GET VERY DIFFICULT. This is referred to as ‘Grade inflation’ (or deflation). 
• In certain subjects where grade boundaries appear low, it’s also to do with the fact that examiners are EXTREMELY stingy with awarding marks. In order to achieve just 1 mark (and take into consideration the time limit is usually set so that you have to work for a mark a MINUTE) you have to follow precise AOs, (assessment objectives) and with humanities subjects there’s usually four different AOs with various levels of achievement. The likelihood of hitting all these AOs within the time given is next to none, but you’re still pushed to do it.
  So actually, if the grade boundaries are low, you should be pretty fucking worried.
• Our qualifications, from A-Level upwards, are very, very specialised. Whereas in the US system you go on to major and minor to create a well-rounded curriculum we are made to pick one certain field of interest and study in (a fuckload of) depth. The grade system and the huge levels of scrutiny in examboards reflects the amount you are suppose to know for one particular subject. (and when I say how much I’m talking the precise grain production levels of all the 5-year plans during Stalinist Russia, for fucking example) 

Sincerely, a British student who has to continually listen to privately educated politicians use these exact standards of over-simplification to justify their demonisation of the English, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish state school system.

^AMEN

^^ TELL ‘EM!

well damn

maza-dohta:

Sun, Moon, Stars - Mos Def

(Source: bruceleefanatic)

(via missproverbsthirtyone)