The Mushroom Queendom

mushroomqueendom:

mushroomqueendom:

mushroomqueendom:

My friends,

In the wake of yesterday’s hugely impactful results in the Democratic primary/caucus, many pundits are saying the race for the democratic nomination is essentially over. And likewise, many of the re-disillusioned electorate are saying/tweeting/posting some form or another of the following:

I’m not voting for Clinton. I’m a registered independent, and I refuse to support neoliberalism.

Don’t try to guilt me into voting for her.

I refuse to pick between the lesser of two evils. You’ll just have to defeat Trump without me. I’m DONE.

And of course, the always tried and true.

Canada is looking better and better. I’ll just save up and move there.

Yeaaaah, so ignoring that last bit, this pseudo-ally-i’m-taking-my-voting-ball-and-going-home mess is totally a privilege that People of Color do not have. POC do NOT get to just throw up our hands and say, “Oh well, let Trump win. I don’t have my perfect candidate, so now, I-don’t-care.”

We don’t get to do that. We don’t have that luxury. We don’t have that privilege…

Keep reading

Welp, I wrote this two years ago, and here we are. Right smack-dab in the middle of nowhere on our way to nowhere good.

Did you get what you wanted, ally? I reckon not. Because what you wanted was for the bad guy to lose without you having to lift a finger, dirty a hand, or wrestle with your understanding of what does the most good.

If you want change, you can’t do nothing. I get it, the system’s corrupt. You hate incrementalism. Something about “both sides.” But IF YOU WANT CHANGE, you CAN’T DO NOTHING. Voting changes an imperfect system. Voting restricts the system from getting more corrupt. Your vote can protect the marginalized voices you purport to support — it’s as simple as that. Black and brown folks BEGGED you to stop Trumpf. You didn’t. Now, it’s up to you, “ally,” to really stand with us to clean up the mess. You get, like, one more shot before the scare quotes are permanent.

MQ

Two years later still. Time has passed, but little else. An investigation, an impeachment, a worldwide pandemic. Still, we remain where we have always been – firmly lodged in the belly of white supremacy. We have a single SINGLE shot at this, ally. One. You can’t reject both white supremacy and the lifeline out of white supremacy. You don’t like it? Who does. But you can’t abstain from the fight and get credit for your principles. What good are principles in the abstract? What good does it do me (or anyone really) for you to hold onto your principles as everyone else fights the permanent entrenchment of white supremacy and you wait for a reason to act that will never come?

Nothing more needs to be said yo, but vote. Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote.

- If you care about your family, community, or country, vote.

- If you want to get out of this pandemic with your lungs or your grandparents’ lungs intact, vote.

- If you can conjure even a single shread of human empathy for a human being other than yourself (especially a human you don’t personally know), then for God sake, VOTE.

For the last 4 years, it’s been Election Day 2016. This is our fr fr last chance to TURN. THAT. PAGE.

MQ

mushroomqueendom:

mushroomqueendom:

My friends,

In the wake of yesterday’s hugely impactful results in the Democratic primary/caucus, many pundits are saying the race for the democratic nomination is essentially over. And likewise, many of the re-disillusioned electorate are saying/tweeting/posting some form or another of the following:

I’m not voting for Clinton. I’m a registered independent, and I refuse to support neoliberalism.

Don’t try to guilt me into voting for her.

I refuse to pick between the lesser of two evils. You’ll just have to defeat Trump without me. I’m DONE.

And of course, the always tried and true.

Canada is looking better and better. I’ll just save up and move there.

Yeaaaah, so ignoring that last bit, this pseudo-ally-i’m-taking-my-voting-ball-and-going-home mess is totally a privilege that People of Color do not have. POC do NOT get to just throw up our hands and say, “Oh well, let Trump win. I don’t have my perfect candidate, so now, I-don’t-care.”

We don’t get to do that. We don’t have that luxury. We don’t have that privilege…

Keep reading

Welp, I wrote this two years ago, and here we are. Right smack-dab in the middle of nowhere on our way to nowhere good.

Did you get what you wanted, ally? I reckon not. Because what you wanted was for the bad guy to lose without you having to lift a finger, dirty a hand, or wrestle with your understanding of what does the most good.

If you want change, you can’t do nothing. I get it, the system’s corrupt. You hate incrementalism. Something about “both sides.” But IF YOU WANT CHANGE, you CAN’T DO NOTHING. Voting changes an imperfect system. Voting restricts the system from getting more corrupt. Your vote can protect the marginalized voices you purport to support — it’s as simple as that. Black and brown folks BEGGED you to stop Trumpf. You didn’t. Now, it’s up to you, “ally,” to really stand with us to clean up the mess. You get, like, one more shot before the scare quotes are permanent.

MQ

Two years later still. Time has passed, but little else. An investigation, an impeachment, a worldwide pandemic. Still, we remain where we have always been – firmly lodged in the belly of white supremacy. We have a single SINGLE shot at this, ally. One. You can’t reject both white supremacy and the lifeline out of white supremacy. You don’t like it? Who does. But you can’t abstain from the fight and get credit for your principles. What good are principles in the abstract? What good does it do me (or anyone really) for you to hold onto your principles as everyone else fights the permanent entrenchment of white supremacy and you wait for a reason to act that will never come?

mushroomqueendom:

It was an accidental experiment of sorts. Small, unplanned, but revealing. It wasn’t even supposed to be an experiment. In fact, it was very clearly an icebreaker. An icebreaker at a themed conference. But the results were revealing.

I’d just arrived at the venue. It was a good choice for a networking event, had there been a hundred fewer in attendance. As it was though, it was packed and uncomfortable. I’m not the sort of person to whom “networking” comes easily. I’m fair at conversation and speaking in general, but in an unintentionally cramped space surrounded by strangers who are all at least one drink in, that can be intimidating. I’m not a drinker, you see, or even all that particularly outgoing save for what the job requires; so when the setting is uncomfortable, I can find difficulty in settling in to the cadence of conversation. My mind just operates more comfortably in more intimate settings.

So when I spied the little cards littering all the standing tabletops, I was happy to peruse them. They were icebreakers – forced icebreakers – but they were welcome to me, encircled by unknown colleagues. The topics were variable. Some spoke of superpowers, favorite movies, or extracurricular pursuits, but amongst the crowd, there was one that grabbed my interest.

If you could give everyone on Earth one thing, what would it be?

I’m paraphrasing a bit here. I didn’t snap a picture of the little card (and I’m fairly certain one of my coworkers pocketed it after our ensuing discussion), but the gist of the inquiry was there.

I read it aloud.

If you could give everyone on Earth one thing, what would it be?

Almost immediately, one of the ladies I’d arrived with answered. I smiled. I hadn’t yet shared my reply, but hers matched mine exactly, and I told her as much. Another attendee approached, perhaps drawn by our laughter and animated discussion. When she arrived, we polled her as well.

If you could give everyone on Earth one thing, what would it be?

She answered us without hesitation. Again, her answer was our answer. A brief bond was formed. We smiled and laughed and continued to discuss.

It was telling that a group of strangers all seemed to gravitate almost prophetically toward a single truth.

Keep reading

mushroomqueendom:

Y'all, the thing we have to understand about America is that this election was not an aberration.

Trump didn’t just come out of nowhere and win the hearts and minds of bigots everywhere.

America is America. Trump won because of course he did.

He won because he’s the American id. Not a fluke, not a defect, not some kind of conspiracy.

If anything the last 8 years were the aberration. And some Time Master just swooped in to correct it.

America is the country that produced George Wallace, that mutilated Emmett Till.

America is the country that held picnics at town lynchings, that gathered its loved ones and smiled for black-and-white photos for a scrapbook while black bodies swung from trees in the distance.

You only take pictures of something you want to remember, right?

It was America that assassinated both Martin AND Malcolm, for all our handwringing about Martin versus Malcolm.

America is the country that forcibly sterilized 60,000 in a secret eugenics war, one they barely reference in classrooms, but who majority of sins took place in the state what considers itself liberal capital of the country.  

America was the country wrote “All men were created equal” while holding slaves, while denying women the vote, while standing on the literal graves of native peoples whose land was pillaged.

(The founding fathers didn’t write that to leave the door open to “men” being redefined. They wrote that because they didn’t see our humanity. There was no need to say “White” because the “White” is always implied.)

America is the country who to this day teaches its children that 620,000 died in the Civil War, but that’s 620,000 white men.

This is and has always been America.

If anything, it was the last 8 years that were the aberration. 

The last 8 years were the aberration. The last 8 years were the aberration.

And America has just returned to what America knows best.

If you’re sitting around saying this is not the America you knew, then truth is you don’t know America.

MQ

We see you, America. We all finally see you. Now, let’s vote in another aberration on Tuesday.

MQ

mushroomqueendom:

My friends,

In the wake of yesterday’s hugely impactful results in the Democratic primary/caucus, many pundits are saying the race for the democratic nomination is essentially over. And likewise, many of the re-disillusioned electorate are saying/tweeting/posting some form or another of the following:

I’m not voting for Clinton. I’m a registered independent, and I refuse to support neoliberalism.

Don’t try to guilt me into voting for her.

I refuse to pick between the lesser of two evils. You’ll just have to defeat Trump without me. I’m DONE.

And of course, the always tried and true.

Canada is looking better and better. I’ll just save up and move there.

Yeaaaah, so ignoring that last bit, this pseudo-ally-i’m-taking-my-voting-ball-and-going-home mess is totally a privilege that People of Color do not have. POC do NOT get to just throw up our hands and say, “Oh well, let Trump win. I don’t have my perfect candidate, so now, I-don’t-care.”

We don’t get to do that. We don’t have that luxury. We don’t have that privilege…

Keep reading

Welp, I wrote this two years ago, and here we are. Right smack-dab in the middle of nowhere on our way to nowhere good.

Did you get what you wanted, ally? I reckon not. Because what you wanted was for the bad guy to lose without you having to lift a finger, dirty a hand, or wrestle with your understanding of what does the most good.

If you want change, you can’t do nothing. I get it, the system’s corrupt. You hate incrementalism. Something about “both sides.” But IF YOU WANT CHANGE, you CAN’T DO NOTHING. Voting changes an imperfect system. Voting restricts the system from getting more corrupt. Your vote can protect the marginalized voices you purport to support — it’s as simple as that. Black and brown folks BEGGED you to stop Trumpf. You didn’t. Now, it’s up to you, “ally,” to really stand with us to clean up the mess. You get, like, one more shot before the scare quotes are permanent.

MQ