Tell Nancy Pelosi To Save Internet Privacy Before It’s Too Late

#Blackout for Minneapolis. For Louisville. For Toronto. For Brooklyn. #Blackout for Us All.

To the #Blackout Community and Tumblr at large, 

We know you must have a lot of questions or are feeling distressed about the news. The world has been dealing with a lot this year, and it is an especially harrowing time for Black Americans and Black folks abroad. We know your biggest question right now could be summed up by a quote from Toni Morrison:

“What can I do where I am?”

Here at #TheBlackout, we have decided to help you start finding an answer to that question - we feel that we need each other. We need unity, organization, a clear sense of direction, but more importantly, a space where you can be yourself without judgement or fear.

So, in addition to boosting your art and businesses, our highest priority right now is to provide you all with resources to help you start from where you are.

This is a masterpost of places you can donate, find mental health + spaces for radical self-care, and just do something fun. We will be adding on as things change. 

Donate/Boost/Sign:

Minneapolis Freedom Bail Fund  & Louisville Community Bail Fund 

Reclaim the Block

Black Visions Collective

The Official GoFundMe of George Floyd’s Family

Official Petition for Breonna Taylor 

Justice for Regis Official Fund

Tony McDade’s Memorial Fund

Black Lives Matter Network

Mental Health Resources:

Ethel’s Club - Black-owned and operated social club offering access to Black therapists and a multitude of creative events for People of Color. 

Crisis Text Line - A different approach to crisis intervention, Crisis Text Line offers you help when you text 741-741. You’ll be able to chat with someone who is willing to listen and provide you with additional resources.

Shine Text. – Black-owned! Sign up to receive cheerful texts and tips every day. 

Therapy For Black Girls - A Black-owned a directory to help you find Black therapists in your area. 

Tips for Organizing/Protesting:

Knowing your rights - ACLU

How To Prepare for a Protest. (Remember to wear a mask in or to protect yourself!)

A Twitter thread of suggested readings

Fun Online Communities and Things to Do:

Some of our favorite online communities. 

Nerd Culture: @blacknerdproblems, @superheroesincolor

Poetry and Literary Spaces: Cave Canem Literary Balms program for Black poets,  Nuyorician Online Open Mic Events, Well-Read Black Girl

Podcasts: Therapy For Black Girls, Strong Black Legends by Netflix’s Strong Black Lead, The Read with Crissle and Kid Fury.

Hobbies: #BlackBirdersWeek by BlackAFinSTEM (5/31 - 6/8), Wellness Week by Black Girl Gamers. 

Join us for the 5/31 Emergency #Blackout/#BlackoutDay here on Tumblr and Twitter. 

man depression SUCKS because i either isolate myself from everyone i know and get nothing done or i stay up so many nights with ideas and jotting those ideas out. and then sometimes it’s LITERALLY BOTH AT THE SAME TIME

anyway i’m saying sorry here to my friends who i didn’t respond to messages to during this time ✌️ been a shitty time

Black Lives Matter

Last week we reacted with feeling. This week we’re channeling that feeling into fuel for action. 

The ongoing protests against police brutality are not just a response to the unnecessary deaths of a few. They are a response to 401 years of racism. The unequal treatment of BIPOC was built into the blueprint of the United States, and we still see the indirect and direct consequences of that fact. 

Tumblr has a moral obligation to our community to use this platform in a socially responsible manner. Staying silent about our solidarity with the police brutality protests last week was not an option. Simply spreading our message of solidarity without actionable follow-up this week was not an option, either. 

What Tumblr is doing

Diversity and inclusion will remain an ongoing open and honest conversation within our company. This week we have come together as an organization to make sure the necessary conversations are being held. Dialogue is great, but action is needed. 

Hate speech is not allowed on Tumblr. That sort of hateful rhetoric leads to violence. White supremacists, Nazis, and other purveyors of hate can fully fuck off. They are not welcome here. As we promised last month, hate speech will not go unchecked. If you see hate speech, report it to our Trust & Safety team. They will remove all content against our Community Guidelines.  

Tumblr is a platform. The small team of <200 employees behind Tumblr are people. People who are scared, hopeful, angry, sad, and impassioned. People who care. As individuals, many of us are marching, protesting, and donating. We wanted to share some of the places we’ve donated to over the last two weeks in the hopes that you’ll check them out yourselves:

Color of Change demands justice and equality for Black people in the United States.

Black Girls Smile is dedicated to providing young Black women with mental health resources.

Equal Justice Initiative works to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality. 

Homeless Black Trans Woman Fund provides Black trans women in Atlanta with housing, food, and necessities.  

Our social advocacy team is seeking more activists to do Issue Times on issues that affect the Black community. So often, the best suggestions come from all of you. Let us know who you want to hear from. As always, we will read the reblogs from this post.

Our official Tumblr for all things social advocacy, @action​, will continue to reblog posts from the community on more ways to help support the protests. 

Ways we can all help

Over the years, the Tumblr community has solidified itself as being passionate advocates for social justice. Through your posts, group chats, and messages, you educate yourself and others. If you’re not Black, commit to being a better ally. Listen to the Black community. 

Last week @theblackoutofficial​ collected a nice list of resources here on Tumblr. You can stay further informed by following the Black Lives Matter, BLM, and protests tag.

There is a place for everyone in the Black Lives Matter movement. You may be unable to march or attend rallies, but that doesn’t mean you have to sit on the sidelines. You can pass out water, masks, and hand sanitizer if you can’t march. You can donate to a charity you believe in or give money to your local mutual aid organization. 

Contact your officials to encourage our communities to invest in areas we know can prevent crime before it even happens: youth services, education, adequate housing, trauma services, counseling, and restorative justice programs. You can use these easy pre-filled form emails for a number of cities.

Just yesterday, U.S. House and Senate leaders introduced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020. This legislation may work to hold police accountable for their actions. We’re watching the developments of this closely, and suggest you do, too. Call your senators and call your representatives to support this legislation. 

Are you an artist of any kind? Or do you just like art? There are tons of artists on Tumblr who are doing commission fundraisers for charities that have an impact on Black communities. Considering buying something or starting one yourself. 

Lastly: Vote!  

Vote! Vote! Register to vote! Even if you missed the deadline for upcoming elections, register to vote now so you can participate in the next one. You deserve to have a say in what happens within your community.

so some republican friends need to learn that the black lives matter movement is not about politics and is about basic human fucking rights. this isn’r about advertising for elections, this is about stopping innocent people of color from getting killed by cops for doing nothing. this is about the justice for those who were killed by cops and those cops have not gotten convicted for their crimes. this is about stopping white supremacy and racism from infecting our country any longer. this isn’r about fucking politics.

To all my followers and con-goers! Please, if you can, make sure to support your favorite online artists because a lot of them will probably need it this year 🙏

not a dream

A Ghanaian celebrity who lives and works in South Korea named Sam Okyere is facing extreme backlash and racism, with comments such as, “Go back to your country,” being thrown at him for daring to call out racism and saying that (some) Koreans can be ignorant on that topic and need to be educated, which can be hard, thus proving his point completely with their extreme reactions. He spoke out on social media about a situation regarding a certain school in South Korea that seems to have a history of blackface in their graduation photos, calling them out, and a lot of Koreans responded with things like, “So, blackface is racist now???” among many insults and horrible comments thrown at him, and they  attacked him for sharing the photo of the students, which he only did AFTER media outlets already shared them without blurring their faces.

Some Koreans are asking for him to be “sent back home” and for his shows and works to be boycotted, saying that he has ruined their international reputation for for daring to write a post about their racism in English as well as Korean, not realizing that they’re doing that themselves by refusing to acknowledge faults, refusing to be educated and throwing temper tantrums when people call out abhorrent behavior. The racism and xenophobia really jumped out.

His social media has been bombarded with hate and racism and he has been forced to apologize due to the strong and extreme backlash, because apparently, if the guy who was in the original coffin dance video says that the recreation images like this are okay for him, that means the whole black community thinks that way and nobody has any right to say otherwise or try to educate people on the history of blackface and why it’s racist, or else they’ll be destroyed. Even journalists who jumped to his defense and tried to explain the situation and educate folks on why it was wrong for people to attack him, have received mass hate.

If you can, please leave a positive message on his Instagram (LINK HERE) so we can combat hate with love and show racist and ignorant people that their behavior is in no way okay and that there’s more of us that there is them!

Sam Okyere is a wonderful man and he doesn’t deserve any of this.

so trump’s hiding in a bunker after anonymous threatens to reveal all the evidence that proves that he is a pedophile and has sex with children? AND because minorities were protesting for basic fucking rights?

imagine what he’d have done if we actually had a war in January. maybe some of us should rethink our decisions the next time the election rolls around

okay so apparently there are SOME dumbasses in the black butler fandom that still think grell is a male. so uh, this is targetted towards the people who think grell is a uwu gay white boy because i got some NEWS FOR YOU

so: grell. is a trans mtf, and don’t even try to argue about it, because the writer of the series, Yana Toboso, points. it. out. very clearly. evidence:

THIS IS LITERALLY ALL THE PROOF YOU NEED!! I should not be arguing about this because it is clearly said in the manga that grell, sweet lady, is a female (trans, but ultimately female). the people who argue this are most likely people who are so obsessed with grell and sebastian yaoi that they absolutely despise the thought of her being a woman, even it she wants to. now, normally, this shouldn’t be a problem, but it is, and here’s why.

if the fans can’t accept grell as a female when she CLEARLY says she wants to be a female and says “the thing i want to do most is to have a sex change”, how are they to accept a regular mtf human being? “no!! you’re a cute uwu gay man its okay!!” no!! accept people for their preferred genders/pronouns and throw your sebastianXgrell yaoi in the dumbster fire. i’m not even in this fandom, my friend was telling me about it and i got really pissy about it. this beautiful lady deserves more respect and love for who she is, as do all the trans kids out there. also! i’m not saying shipping her with sebastian is bad- buddy, i don’t care about this fandom enough to care about that ship (just don’t ship sebastian and ciel that’s DISGUSTING), just don’t ship them together and call it yaoi when it isn’t. my friend found the image and did the circling.

WHEN WILL PEOPLE FUCKING REALIZE THAT

MEN

ALSO

ARE

GIVEN

UNREALISTIC

EXPECTATIONS

DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING IDEA

HOW IMPOSSIBLE IT IS

TO LOOK LIKE THIS???

IT’S 100% FUCKING ILLOGICAL TO EXPECT MEN TO HAVE THIS RIPPED SIX-PACK ABS AND BE SKINNY AND HAVE PERFECT SKIN AND FACIAL COMPLEXION!  MEN ALSO EXPERIENCE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE WITH OUR BODIES ALL. THE. FUCKING. TIME.