Tag Archives: Race and racism

Current events, Downloads, Social justice

Free Image Downloads: Black Lives Matter Mask and T-shirt Designs

These designs are free for personal use, licensed as CC BY-NC-SA. This means you are free to use and modify the designs for non-commercial use, provided you give attribution to me by way of this site. If you wish to use the designs commercially, contact me through the contact form on the Privacy Policy page or through the comments here.

I have 3 free designs for you today, all #BlackLivesMatter related. Check back for other designs to come, and if you have suggestions, please put them in the comments. The primary uses for these designs are for crafters using vinyl cutting machines such as Silhouette Curio, Silhouette Cameo, Cricut or Brother craft vinyl cutters, or plotters. For any of those, you will need to reverse the designs if using them with heat transfer vinyl (HTV). For other vinyl applications, such as car decals, do not reverse them. You can also use them to print iron-on transfers for t-shirts or bags or printable vinyl or temporary tattoos (usually need to reverse those as well), window signs, or whatever you can think of.

SVG files contain the text as text and as paths, so that you can edit it or change fonts if you like. They are in Zip archives for security reasons. PNG files are 200 dpi for good results when printing. Right-click or long-press the link (depending on your operating system) under each image where it says ‘here’ to get the file type you prefer. Images below are not full size.

PNG version here — Zip file for SVG version here
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Current events, Public health, Social justice

DC May Decriminalize Psychedelic Plants and Fungi in Nov. Election

Washington DC activists appear to have collected enough validated signatures to get Initiative 81 on the November ballot, which would decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi within the District. Specifically, the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act of 2020 if passed would do the following (from initiative link):

  • Make the investigation and arrest of adults for non-commercial planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, possessing, and/or engaging in practices with entheogenic plants and fungi among the Metropolitan Police Department’s lowest law enforcement priorities; and
  • Codify that the people of the District of Columbia call upon the Attorney General for the District of Columbia and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia to cease prosecution of residents of the District of Columbia for these activities.
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Civil Rights, Current events, Social justice

The 1619 Project and the Importance of Understanding the Relevance of Chattel Slavery to American History and Current Conditions

Yes, I realize that title is ridiculously long. It is crucial we—the collective cultural “we”—understand the relevance of chattel slavery to where we find ourselves now in America in a cultural sense, because all that we have is built on all that has been, and many Americans from every part of the country, every economic class, and every color have not been taught relevant facts about our history (alternate link).

Our history curricula have neglected and whitewashed critical elements of the context in which events happened, people became notorious or famous, and legislation and court decisions have shaped what was allowed by whom and against whom. This project, by The New York Times Magazine in collaboration with the Smithsonian—the lead essay of which, by project director Nikole Hannah-Jones, won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary—aims to help correct that by filling in gaps in knowledge and understanding of adults and providing new free curriculum for students at all levels, co-developed with the Pulitzer Center, which hosts it.

In response to criticism from historians, The Times updated a sentence in Hannah-Jones’ essay to clarify that, while fear that England was headed toward outlawing slavery was a primary factor driving support for the American Revolution among some colonists, it was not for all colonists. In fact, throughout American history there has been conflict between those Whites who supported slavery, racialized castes, and White supremacy and those who have ardently resisted them.

If you’re a subscriber to the Times, you can read the essays in the 1619 Project and explore its interactive elements here. If not, you can download a PDF file of the full issue of The New York Times Magazine issue containing all the essays from the Pulitzer Center.

The August 18th cover of Times Magazine. Cover by Dannielle Bowman.
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Civil Rights, Current events, Social justice

Portland, Oregon Protesters, Thank You

Not only have the protesters for Black lives in Portland been consistent in showing up, but they are demonstrating effective ways for people to come together and resist authoritarian clampdowns on free speech as well as how White people can be good allies, showing up and using White privilege to protect protesters of color and center their voices. They’re not the first, of course, and many of the strategies they’ve been using—including using leaf blowers to return tear gas to the senders—have come from Hong Kong, in particular, where pro-democracy protesters have been demonstrating in recent years against the might of China.

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Social justice

On Capitalizing Color When Talking About Race

I have, for some time, mostly consistently used a capital B to begin ‘black’ when it refers to a racialized and demographic grouping. I have done this for a few reasons: to show respect, confer social power, and reduce or eliminate ambiguity. I have not been capitalizing ‘white’ for two reasons: because I associate that usage style with White supremacists and White nationalists, and because White people as a group don’t need any more empowerment. I have not capitalized ‘brown’ because I have not seen that usage style used more than a handful of times, and those only in academic contexts. Today, my mind has been changed, and I will be changing the style guide (such as it is) for Damnwalr.us going forward to capitalize all racialized groupings.

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Civil Rights, Social justice

Voting Rights, and How Racists Limit Access

When the American Civil War ended, states which had joined the Confederacy were required to accept conditions in order to remove the Union. Included in these conditions were ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution, which ended legal slavery except as punishment for a crime; ensured that anyone born within the United States or its territories was a citizen of both the country and the state where they resided; required due process in order to deprive any citizen of life, liberty, or property; required states to allow all citizen men age 21 and up to vote unless convicted of a crime, on penalty of losing representation in Congress; dealt with various matters regarding insurrection (the Confederacy); and prohibited limiting or denying the right to vote on the basis of race, color, “or previous condition of servitude” (enslavement). As you might suspect, states leapt upon those loopholes with enthusiasm.

Thirteenth (13th) Amendment:

13th Amendment text (click to expand)

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. [Emphasis added]

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Fourteenth (14th) Amendment:

14th Amendment text (click to expand)

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [Emphasis added]

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. [Emphasis added]

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Fifteenth (15th) Amendment:

15th Amendment text (click to expand)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. [Emphasis added]

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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Current events

White Cultural Default in US

American conservatives this week are up in arms about a graphic shared by the National Museum of African American History and Culture which addresses some of the ways in which white culture is dominant and has become the default cultural setting in the US. They made such an uproar about it that the museum removed the graphic, rather than engaging in conversation about it and perhaps learning something. White culture is so much the American default that we often don’t see it, just as fish don’t see water until they’re taken from it.

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