Post Akw9B7Y5Rlri6UtPyi by flowerpot@mas.to
(DIR) More posts by flowerpot@mas.to
(DIR) Post #Akw4sxEKfmrd4Wjd8S by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-08-13T02:25:46Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
The whole Ray Gun breaking situation:A talentless rich white lady scammed her way into the Olympics, scored zero points, embarrassed the athletes that did have the talent to be there, and became the focus of attention.Academics who know absolutely nothing about breaking are jumping out of the woodwork to defend her, because as I mentioned, she's a rich white lady, and a credentialed one at that.The conversation is now not about breaking, but about "Are people being too mean to her?"1/N
(DIR) Post #Akw4t0ivgU7ZuI4bk8 by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-08-13T02:26:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This situation is very familiar to Black folks. We've seen it times before. We will see it again."Talentless," may sound harsh. It's not. You can't watch an Olympic gymnasts routine on TV, and copy it without training. Same thing with breaking.But untrained people are mastering every "move" that Raygun did in minutes, and posting it to TikTok🤦🏿♂️You can't fake breaking. The moves require incredible strength, balance, and training.B-boyhttps://www.tiktok.com/@magic_movez/video/7131419729146776859B-girlhttps://www.tiktok.com/@redbullbcone/video/7189695383130443014
(DIR) Post #Akw9B7Y5Rlri6UtPyi by flowerpot@mas.to
2024-08-13T02:45:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@mekkaokereke I didn't watch the Olympics, but I did find some snippets of her performance. For how much she (Rachael Gunn/Ray Gun) studied culture, so much of it seemed to have escaped her notice.
(DIR) Post #Akw9B87XJyDnsRTjEW by ajsadauskas@aus.social
2024-08-13T05:09:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@flowerpot @mekkaokereke There's a hierarchy of Sydney's universities.There's Sydney Uni.Then there's the University of NSW. If you don't make it to Sydney Uni or UNSW, or you want a degree in a subject they don't offer, there's UTS.And if you don't make it into Sydney Uni, or UNSW, or UTS...Well...Then there's Macquarie Uni.I mean... It's okay. The main campus is way out in the suburbs, 17 kilometres/10 miles from the centre of Sydney, on the opposite side of the harbour.In a suburban business park.It has a Metro station now! And it's across the street from a giant shopping centre with an ice skating rink!And like many things in Sydney, it's named after an early colonial governor named Lachlan Macquarie.Amongst his many other crimes, Lachlan abducted around 40 Aboriginal children from their parents and forcibly had them sent to an institution he set up. It was called the Blacktown Native Institution for the Education of Aboriginal Children.(Yes, it was actually called that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacktown_Native_Institution_Site )Think I'm some leftie with a black armband view of history?Well, here's the man in his own words:"I have directed as many Natives as possible to be made Prisoners, with the view of keeping them as Hostages until the real guilty ones have surrendered themselves, or have been given up by their Tribes to summary Justice."In the event of the Natives making the smallest show of resistance – or refusing to surrender when called upon so to do – the officers Commanding the Military Parties have been authorised to fire on them to compel them to surrender; hanging up on Trees the Bodies of such Natives as may be killed on such occasions, in order to strike the greater terror into the Survivors."RayGun is a lecturer at Macquarie University, which was named in this man's honour.
(DIR) Post #Akw9B8dnO21fUUZUW0 by jedsetter@aus.social
2024-08-13T10:48:33Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ajsadauskas @flowerpot @mekkaokereke are you coming for someone because they are affiliated with a thing that is named after a problematic Governor? that's basically everyone! the uni has nothing to do with him aside from the name. it came into existence 150~ years after his time.
(DIR) Post #Akw9B98HYgPd12pq2C by ajsadauskas@aus.social
2024-08-13T15:06:01Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@jedsetter @flowerpot @mekkaokereke I'm not coming after Rachael because of who the university she works for was named after, or what he did.I'm pointing out that her performance has a much bigger social and historical context.How and why do we get this white Australian woman making a fool of herself by badly appropriating Black American culture, while throwing in poorly executed appropriated Aboriginal dance moves?Because, like all of us, she's the product of her cultural, economic, social, and political environment.And that context is a white Australia that has barely begun even acknowledging the genocidal atrocities committed against Aboriginal people. On stolen land. Fully sanctioned and encouraged, systematically, by the state.Lachlan Macquarie was the living human embodiment of that. Just read his endorsement of genocidal acts. Of the lynchings. Of the massacres. Of the displacement. Of the stolen land. Of the stolen children.The fact that universities, whole suburbs, shopping centres, train stations, and even banks and hospitals are named in his honour, unquestioned, speaks volumes.Without that reckoning from Australian society and its institutions, there can be no justice. No reconciliation. No equity. Without that reckoning, there is no understanding. Only ignorance.How does this country keep producing the RayGuns? And Iggy Azaleas? And Sam Newmans? And Chris Lilleys?How do we produce the Rupert Murdochs? And Channel Sevens? And Alan Joneses? And Andrew Bolts? And Pauline Hansons?Because of the same ignorance, the same lack of reckoning, that says uncritically it's okay to name a university in the honour of someone like Lachlan Macquarie.Yes, the two things are very much linked.