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The Label vs. The Reality
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| | I completed a programming project I had been planning/buidling for months called L33T Interpreter. If you cant tell by the name the program translates/encrypts in Leet. It also uses various other encryption styles that I made (i.e. numerical and reverse). Im still installing the decrypter for it but other than that the rest of the program works, quite well I might add. I plan on adding more to it in the near future (i.e. more encryption styles and a save to file command, as well a user interface->its written for command prompt currently <-). I will eventually make a version of it for web usage, it should be part of my Livejournal Bio when I do. | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment   |
| | Current Location: | home | | Time: | 05:46 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/angry.gif) angry |
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| Today on the bus I witnessed a couple of thugs (well one out of the two who were there) no older than 17 years old grab this asian girl's ipod just before they got off the bus. I was sitting less than 5 feet away and the whole thing happened so fast I hardly knew what was happening before they were gone. It was one of those double buses and the driver had started driving again before the girl could get up to the front to tell the driver what went down. I was holding on to my purse tightly, like I always do, thankfully. But the whole thing makes me so embarassed to be black, and I am thankful every morning that I am light skinned and look mixed with latin or Asian and some other things too. I feel so bad because that asian girl and so many others are going to find it almost impossible to get over their stereotypes of black people because of what happened to her. We always see our people on the news shooting, killing fighting and stealing, and we glorify it in our music videos and think that drug dealers are entrepeneurs (sp, I know!). I am scared of most of my own people now. I don't want to associate with them or be around them. situations like the one I saw today makes me even worse. I know this sounds a little harsh but it is how I feel. Every time I see one of them coming down the same street I am with their shirts and pants 20 sizes too big and are down so low that if they bend over I experience a full moon, I just want to cross to the other side, it's gotten that bad for me.
hl | | comments: 37 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | 20-Something Black Femmes Social Group | | Time: | 11:39 pm |
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| Hey, it's been AGES since I've posted in this community. Shame on me. Shame. On. Me. But at least I've re-started for a good cause :)
I started this group on a site called meetup.com, for black 20-something females in the Toronto area who I describe as "a little bit hip hop and a little bit rock and roll." Ok, I know a lot of people in this community don't like hip hop, but that's not the point. Basically it's a group for young black women who are interested in music, cultures, art or movies that are off the beaten track. People might label us 'washed' or poseurs, but so be it. I've just started the group, so I'm hoping to see it grow over the next couple of weeks; I think it would fill a void and help like-minded women get together for events and such.
Anyway, rambling (as I tend to do), if you're interested or know someone who might be check out the Craigslist post at: http://toronto.craigslist.org/grp/212380189.html. This will in turn take you to the meetup.com group page.
Thanks! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | None | | Subject: | I have to ask........ | | Time: | 06:53 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/curious.gif) curious |
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| | Is anyone else here intresting in things like game design, AI design, and/or game programming (Even if you arent a designer/progammer)? | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Harry Nilsson - The Point | | Current Location: | work (shhh) | | Subject: | Let's liven things up | | Time: | 10:16 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/surprised.gif) awake |
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| This community is a little sleepy lately, so I thought I'd wake it up. I've got two things to contribute: an incident I was recently involved in, and a book I've been reading.
Shit, the incident description got really long, I'll talk about the book in another post.
( The incident, cut 'cause it's long )
The thing about this story is, this is the response I always get from street vendor rappers. I mean, I’ve never been followed before (that was extra-super crazy) , but I’ve been yelled at, demeaned, and called a race traitor in so many words because I don’t want to buy a rap CD from some guy on the street. I once had a guy respond to my polite, “No thanks, it’s not really my kind of music,” with, “WELL FUCK YOU TOO, THEN!” I’ve heard the phrase, “Help a brother out,” more times then I care to mention, and that’s the sentiment that really pisses me off. This tells me that they’re expecting me to buy their CD solely because we share a skin color, like it shouldn’t matter that I don’t like the music and don’t want the CD, I should just give them money because hey, we’re supposed to be family. Well, I don’t buy it (no pun intended). I am under no obligation to buy something I don’t want just because the seller happens to be black.
Your thoughts? | | comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Hello! | | Time: | 12:02 pm |
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| Hi there, I just joined this community. It looked dead, but I think if we post enough we can rez it (I don't want to pay the XP cost :P).
Time for stuff about me!
My name is Stephen Meriles, a young man of philosphy, logic and fanfics from New York. I'm of Bolivian and Irish heritage. Though I'm not black, I kinda understand how it feels like to be persucated for what you look like and what you act like, even not to be thought of as a person of your race (though, in all fairness, my skin color is rather pale looking). However, I am not in the least ashamed that I don't fit others expectations. Neither did Arastotle, King or Gandi.
Nows fors other stuff...um, YAY!:
I'm from New York, but now I live in Long Pond, PA (moved about a month ago). I have 6 family members in my house: Me, my two brothers, mother, father and grandfather. I also have a (Mean! j/k) calico cat and a pitbull/black lab puppy (who humps and bites almost everyone!) I have a girlfriend in New York named Elizibeth, who I luv very much, who is into MySpace, Underworld and is currently occupied with Loveless (A manga. From the description on wikipedia, it seems like it's about cat people, a rather ambiguously gay duo and casting magic missle into the darkness, lol). I play a couple of video games, such as Halo 2, World of Warcraft, Day of Defeat and, the all time greatest, most vesitle game ever written into the book that is reality, Dungeons and Dragons (got a little carried away there). I love watching Rooster Teeth productions such as Red vs. Blue and P.A.N.I.C.S. (which stands for People Acting Normally in Crazy-Ass Situations). I am a lover of the Venture Bros., especially the Monarch. Here's a quote from the show:
The Monarch: (talking about Phantom Limb to Jollyrancher82) "That chode she's with, that's Phantom Limb. In college he was a scrawny little wuss. In a desperate attempt to be cooler than guys like me, he had his 12 year old roommate create a machine that speeds up the muscle building process. The machine worked so well that every molecule in his extremities was accelerated beyond the speed of light. There were two side effects. One! He could mess up a guy just by touching him. And two! He became a humorless dick!"
I'm also a deep thinker, philosopher, and humanist. I sometimes go through the internet with nothing more to hear peoples thoughts and opinions. I walk the incredibly thin line between republican and democrat, leaving me in a gray area, watching all others (*Insert porn refrence here*).
I am also a giant anime and manga fan. I love Fullmetal Alchemist (the one with the gnome who can clap his hands and make magicy things with metal armor as a brother), Ghost in the Shell (the one with the chick who is a robot with over-sized boobies!) and Read or Die (the one where lesbians have the powers to mess up people with paper!) in particular. I am actaully writing a fanfic that I hope will be turned into a manga, then an anime and know world wide (it's a rip of the three above, except the gnome doesn't have a metal brother and is really creepy with sunglasses, the woman has no boobies and the lesbians are replaced with a fat guy) | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | CAKE - Long Line of Cars | | Subject: | My Google quote of the day. | | Time: | 04:22 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/happy.gif) amused |
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| If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.
- George Aiken
Aw, it's funny 'cause it's true...and it's funny 'cause it's sad.
Except that we've found so many other prejudices already, I doubt it would take until noon...[/pessimism] | | comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | um... racist kids...? o.o | | Time: | 04:46 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/thoughtful.gif) contemplative |
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| Okay, as is the case with my last dealie... I'm known for my long-winded stories. That's my warning... sorry if I'm boring. XD
Sooooo.....
I loves my MMORPGs. No, not Warcraft or Guild Wars... I just stick to free ones because I play too many. XD
And I'm a dork and actually create and roleplay my characters in the game. o.o;;
Anyway, I'm playin' up some Maple Story, which, for those who don't know, is a sickeningly cute side-scroller where half the fun is dressing up your little chibi character. And they make facial expressions instead of just emoticons. teehee.
At a first glance, it looks like a kids' game, so it's understandable that it attracts a relatively younger gaming populous. I've been asked many times in-game why I don't play Warcraft or something else.
It's cute, okay?!? XD
Bleh. But yeah, you can customize your little chibi's appearance by their hair, face, and skin tone. So most of mine look like me and have the so-named "tanned" skin tone. Not the "dark," mind you, but "tanned."
So I'm running around in the game and find a guy who's character appears to be a ["pale" toned] beginner, but he's obviously not new to the game. Not so unusual. So I said to him what I say to everyone else attempting to get other players to do their work for them.
*snickers* Here is the conversation that followed... as best transcribed as possible considering the game interface. (word for word, with his successful bypassing of language filters. -__- )
Him: [to me, repeatedly] buying blu snail shells
Mer: Um, go get them yourself... plenty of snails here. [walks away, annoyed face]
Him: black ppl r all the same sh!t
Me: [stops, blinks, walks away, ignoring]
Him: [follows] black ppl r all the same sh!t!!!
Me: [stops] Um... wow. wtf.
Him: u think ur all sh!t u niger <--(note the spelling, lol)
Me: [shocked face] You don't even know if I'm black or not. I could be Latina for all you know.
Him: u think ur all sh!t
Me: ... whatever, dude. [walks away]
Him: [follows] ur all the same sh!t
Me: Um, you can leave now. [keeps walking]
Him: [still follows] ur all the same sh!t
Me: Yeah, that's quite the vocab you've got. [keeps walking attempting to lose him]
Him: ur all sh!t
Him: ur all donkey sh!t
Me: [stops] LMAO!!! wtf is wrong with you?!?!? [keeps going after my good laugh IRL]
Him: [is lost off-screen] ur all jus donkey sh!t u nigers <--(note the spelling again)
I lost him for a few sweet minutes, but he passed by and started it all over again, the little idiot. But revenge was served nicely:
Him: [passing by] hello donkey sh!t
Me: [stands on ledge, unamused silence]
Him: buying blu snail shells
Him: to the donkey sh!t buying blu snail shells
Me: [smiles] heh.
Him: [stands on ground below] wat u grining 4 donkey sh!t
Him: u no im right
Me: [continues to smile]
Him: u no ur donkey sh!t
-- [a mob of weak monsters immediately ploughs him over] --
Him: [as a ghost] donkey sh!t
Me: [big smile] Aaaand... that's why you died. [reports him for harassment, defames him, and walks away, unscathed] Laterz!
XD, yes, behold my nerdy moment of video game glory.
But on a serious note... I really wonder about this kid.
I'm guessing he could be no older than 14, MAYbe... and no younger than about 10, but the first thing that ran through my mind was, is he serious? lol
And if he was serious, it made me wonder even further. My questions became, where on earth is this kid from, and how does he think this way?
I've rarely seen a racist child, because that's not something a kid could understand....... unless this thinking is instilled in them.
So. Is it credible to wonder what garbage his parents have been feeding his brain? Or..... could it have been from "too much TV," as is them blame for everything else?
I'd like to think that racsism is a dying concept in today's popular culture and society.
I won't be naive and say that it doesn't still exist... for many of us know this fact all too well...
This kid, as young and ridiculous as he was, is just small evidence that it's somehwere still alive and thriving.
Makes me wonder if I should be worried about other kids these days. -__-
[/end nerdy-rambling-gone-social-commentary] | | comments: 14 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | In Reverent Fear - Ride The Black Horse | | Subject: | First Time Poster | | Time: | 04:45 pm | | Current Mood: | curious |
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| | I was just wondering how many of you guys are into metal or related genres of music and any issues that have come up because of it. Like being one of the only black people at a show, how you dress, listening to "the white mans" music, etc etc. | | comments: 25 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Intro & Observations on The Oreo Label | | Time: | 11:55 pm | | Current Mood: | contemplative |
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| Hey there, noob member here. Let's get the seemingly requisite stats out of the way, shall we? Born/raised in SoCal, specifically that place non-SoCalers like to call "The OC" (thank you very much, idiot LA Producers...or should I say, The LA?), math major (I can prove why division by zero is disallowed), lyric coloratura (someday Una voce poco fa will be in my repetoire!!), former swimmer (my wingspan is still ginormous), moderately talented violinist (Tchaikovsky broke me), formerly good chess player (sure, I gotta little Sicilian in me...), fairly decent curler (ERROR: daily witticism quota exceeded), and LJ addict (duh).
Ok, so my topic for the {insert favorite time unit} is this: how do you usually segment the human race? Growing up, my main classification feature was (perceived) intelligence level. People I could converse with in an intelligent, lucid manner and people who were able to "out-think" me were classified as smart, and everyone else was stupid. Seeing as I was also an immensely egotistical child, darn near everyone was stupid. This mattered more to me than gender, race, and economic status; if you were smart, it didn't matter what color your skin was, how you peed, or how much your parents made, you were cool. Not surprisingly, most of my friends were the same way. Occasionally, I'd run into people who didn't fit into my categories, ones who acted stereotypically "dumb" but whose grades and other accolades belied serious brainpower. They were confusing, and I didn't know how to act around them; usually, I just avoided them.
Having lived in the South (MD) for the past few years, I've come to realize that a lot of people do the same to me according to a racial system of classification. I am incongruous because I am black and smart/talented, and they have no idea how to react. This realization has given me perspective on the issues surrounding one's identification as an "oreo": it's a reaction to a false dichotomy forced upon minorities (specifically blacks, I suppose) by a majority opinion. I believe that if one falls into the "oreo" category, one truly has to comprehend the social forces at work that have forced this identification choice before one can develop a healthy sense of self.
That is all. You may now return to your regularly scheduled brainwashing programming. | | comments: 22 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Time: | 05:53 am | | Current Mood: | awake too early |
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| | I've actually began feeling more comfortable with myself since I began acknowledgeing having both origins (black and white) in my recent heritage. I don't know, maybe I thought of myself as only white and didn't realize it. I thought I didn't subscribe to any race at all and thouht of myself as me but I don't know... I think I've been avoiding realizing what made me my whole life. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Double Bass-- Gorillaz | | Subject: | *laughs* -- Oh noes, black people! | | Time: | 10:23 pm | | Current Mood: | amused |
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| Okay, first off... I'm notorious for my long-winded stories. XD Sorry in advance if I'm boring. But I find this amusing.
College kid here. Entering my third credit year. Confined to the dorms still, but we're a fun and crazy house. lol.
Anyhoo, I'm at an art school, so there's an amazing crowd of kooky and fun people to see and meet, myself included. But what's really neat is the diversity here... not what I had expected, really. People of all nationalities and ethnicities coexist, in what seems to be a peaceful manner. Though there are incredible amounts of Asian kids here... not really surprising at all. lol.
However, even with enough diversity to make D.I.A. proud, one can still run into the occassional student who seems to have lived in a social/cultural/geographical box.
I wondered if I had found a couple more when I made the observation that my roomate and I.... scare the shit out of our neighbors. XD
We weren't sure at first... they're both freshman girls, so we thought maybe they were shy... or thought that talking to upperclassmen was odd or something. I dunno. We gave them the benefit of the doubt.
But I started to wonder why one of them would quickly shuffle past whenever I gave a friendly "Hello!" and wave. Without a word or so much as eye-contact, even. The first time was understandable... but every time after...? I was just trying to be a friendly neighbor.
I see them both at the bas stop pretty often. And I nod. And wave.
No response.... just aversion of eye-contact again.
I told my roomie, who reported the same non-responses from both of them... and even better, she bumped into one of them (who's kind of... large... and easy to bump into) once and politely apologized. The girl picked up her books, mumbled something along the lines of "S-s-s-sorry," and shuffled quickly into her room.
Lol, my roomie also once had a pair of shoes sitting outside the door to dry, and the other neighbor girl, who's really small and mousy, must have accidentally kicked them on her way by. Roomie was coming the other way and saw her move the shoes and was about to apologize for leaving them in the way..... but the mousy girl immediately put down her stuff, gathered the shoes, straightened them to the way they were, got her stuff, yelled "Sorry!" and practically ran away down the hall. O__o
My roomie and I laughed hard at that one, but we really did wonder why we spook them so much.
I should add that yes, our neighbors are white, and we are both black. I should also add that while I am small (5' 2"!), yappy, and pretty harmless... my roomate, conversely, is nearly six feet of metal and darkness-wearing silent attitude, with an unintended habit of being rather intimidating. O__o (random little piccy if you're curious. Guess who's who. =P ) Friends and I note that she scares boys away... but maybe small neighbor girls too?
But if that's the case... why do they shrink away whenever either of us are coming? lol
We tested this further when one of our non-black friends was over to visit. He's Asian-Caucasian, so says he. Anyway, he stood outside our room, pretending to look over the balcony or something. Sure enough, one of the neighbors came by, and he waved and said hello.
ZOMG, response!!
Lol, we claimed then that something was definitely up... and for now we just joke about them being scared of black people. Which is ridiculous... just glancing into their window, we'd get along just fine. We like a lot of the same bands, watch the same shows... heck, we even own the same manga. (yeah, we're dorks, I know.) I wonder if they know that we're not just "scary black girls?" =P
Hah, I thought I should feel like... insulted... or discriminated... or something, but I just can't stop laughing about it. It amuses me greatly.
((walks up to white neighbors)) "Boo!"
((they scream and dive under the bed))
HAHAHAHAhahahaha.
I'm done. Just thought I'd share.
-- Suketchi | | comments: 19 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Until the Day I Die,Story of the Year | | Subject: | Black with "mental issues" | | Time: | 01:18 pm | | Current Mood: | cranky |
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| Hey guys,
I don't know if I introduced myself(maybe? who knows), but I am Firebrandcutie. I don't know how to begin this, so I might as well jump into it. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with Depression, which recently was found out to be Borderline Personaility Disorder. Anyway, as a self-disclaimer, I warn people because I don't want people thinking I am this evil bitch when in fact I either 1) am being a bitch or 2) It's my illness. I don't like hiding behind it, but yeah, it does some damage. Anyway,I ended up becoming friends with someone who was the same race as me and yadda yadda, so I decided it was time to give her THE TALK. Well, it didn't go over too well. Here's a reenactment:
CollegeGirlbuddahfly(notme): Black people don't have depression or any mental problems. That's just a white person invention. You just want to be white anyway so that's why you are even saying that. Black people don't have mental problems, they go to church.
Me: OK, so basically the people there who don't have mental problems go to church where they don't have issues?
CGB: Yea, you need to go to church and stop trying to be white.
Me: No thanks, I'm atheist.
/pans fly out and hit me in the head..various teachers pass out...and the girl that was hitting on me informs me that I am going to hell.
Well, after that, I held this belief or whatever that it appears that not alot of blacks talk about mental health....or they just supress it. Are there ANY people of color who admit depression, bipolar, anything? Or am I the lone crazy? | | comments: 36 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | THE FIGHTING WORDS. | | Time: | 12:39 pm |
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| Hey guys, I'm a member of ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) negroclash and I noticed that a lot from that group hate you guys. I was amazed to find a group called, debunkingoreos, but I never knew the reason for all the hate. So I made a post about it.
Here is a summary of the comments:
"I despise oreos because an overwhelming majority of its members use the persecution that they've received from other black people for deviating from the status quo as an excuse to completely separate themselves from the black community as a whole."
"It's because they give black people who have knowledge of things *white a bad reputation.
they see their being black as a huge negative. they go around pretending to be white and hating their black skin. the simple notion of "oreo" itself is a clear statement of the problem. black on the outside white on the inside. their unofficial motto, "its the inside that counts right? umm, then im an oreo bithes!". if you happen to like some things classically labeled white, sweet, welcome to the club. but dont go around non verbally (and in some cases verbally) labeling yourselves as white. dont go, "EWWW Hip hop!" when you secretly like nelly or even little brother (a stretch i know). oreos glare at the other black person in a 2token situation, and through their eyes their thoughts can easily be read, "like, this is MY party dont fuck it up cause like my foothold with these friends like isnt strong enough for two of us, find your own!", and thats how you know their an oreo rather then just a black person who happens to be clueless about black people. oreos are fully aware that there is an 'us' and they ignore it or rather try to evict themselves from the club. for this i dislike them. that and they wear colored contacts."
"I think some people just need something to hate on. If it's not the goths it's the oreos, etc.
There is a lot of self-hate and misunderstading about what it means and doesn't mean to be a black person in Oreos, but considering most of those people just don't have an outlet or understanding that there are a lot of blacks who don't "fit the sterotype"... to me, it makes sense. Also, when they end up being rejected by people they consider their peers (say some of the members here who "are black but listen to 'white music'") it just makes all that self-hate/shame-for-being-born-black-thing even worse.
To, like you, put it simply, I've noticed one major reason why it seems the people here don't like the people in Oreos; most NC people aren't ashamed of who and what they are, but many Oreos quite frequently are.
Negroclash is for blacks who recognize and accept the fact that they are black and listen to non-sterotypical music/have non-sterotypical tastes, whereas, many of Oreos members are ashamed to be black *because* they listen to non-sterotypical music/have non-sterotypical tastes."
The post in its entirety is here:
http://community.livejournal.com/negroclash/2327097.html
What do you guys think about this? Do you think any of what they're saying is true? Do you disagree? Do you guys hate negroclash? | | comments: 30 comments or Leave a comment |
| Black White. Have any of you been watching it? Have any opionions?
Personally, though the casting is a bit less extreme in this case than in most 'reality' T.V, (though I hesitate to call this reality television, because the people aren't selfishly competing for somthing, and it's less about drama than it is about seeing what America is like on a racial basis,) it still seems as if the choices for familes that they chose were, in a sense, done diliberatly as to make there be more drama. However, I may just trying to give both white and black people too much credit; perhaps most white Americans are as idealistic and ignorant as the white parents, and perhaps most black Americans are hypersensitive to racial issues. I don't like jumping to that conclusion, though, because it's almost as if that's what the producers want me to think.
I think Rose has the most sense out of all of them, and I respect her the most out of all of the people there.
M'kay, I'm done. Thoughts? I'm curious to know what other people think on this. | | comments: 47 comments or Leave a comment |
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The Label vs. The Reality
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