so pandie is coming back to smelbtown in september which means we are gonna be making some more music and playing as axximilation again. after 6 months apart, we have experienced some real awesome racism to be inspired by. get ready for the hate.
also we only have a few demos left so get them from me now or miss out.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
calling all whities: a response to shit responses when challenged on racism
YO WHITIES, STOP AND SHUT UP. YES I MEAN ALL OF YOU. EVEN YOU GUYS THAT THINK YOU ARE “REALLY” ONTO IT. THIS IS A RESPONSE TO THE REALLY FUCKEN SHIT RESPONSES I’VE HAD TO HEAR, PUT UP WITH, LOSE FRIENDSHIPS OVER, ETC ETC, WHEN YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY CHALLENGED ON YOUR RACISM.
Firstly I’m going to start by saying I am not going to use the phrase “calling people out on their shit”, please please, keep this language exclusive to sexual assault stuff. It’s really fucking important and if you don’t understand why then talk to me about it. I’m going to say when challenging people on their shit, or racist behaviour or their racism. Ok so, in the past few years whenever this has happened in Melbourne, in my group of friends, community, extended community, there has been this really big problem. Now I’m a person of colour and am already pissed off that I have to write this but it seems as though there is this really big lack of education of white people in this community surrounding race stuff. So the problem is right, well, if any of you people had actually read about this shit, which you all seem to tell me you do, is some pretty basic, well known and well written about responses when people are challenged on their racism. “The so called, what not to do’s”. This is what I’m going to talk about here. People’s fucken wack, bullshit, whatever responses. Responses that make me cringe, laugh, cry, get real angry and in the end, just want to fast pace EXIT outta this scene.
1. Firstly I’m gonna start talking about the ye olde “self defensiveness”, “denial” and the “BUT”.
So on a theory level it’s very interesting to note that denial and defensiveness is quite often connected to fear of loss. Those of you who are friends with people of colour are probably shit scared of losing those friendships in acknowledging the differences between us and or your own racism. One really great and potent form of denial and defensiveness is intellectualising. When you say all the right things and use an intellectual understanding of racism to distance yourself from how you perpetuate and benefit from racism. Please don’t insult me by telling me you are reading bell hooks, Malcolm x, audre lorde etc. Do you know that most of these black authors who you say you have read, wrote specifically for a black audience. They were not writing to educate white people. They were writing to educate and inspire and empower their own people. I’m not telling you not to read them, fuck, education is really important, but remember, these books are not yours to be inspired by, they are not yours to appropriate, to quote, to tell people of colour that you are somehow trying to be anti racist by reading this shit, seriously, it’s insulting. It also seeks to separate you from other white people. Don’t do it. You perpetrate and benefit from systematic racism, you benefit from white privilege. YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT.
Also time and time again I’ve heard some really cool stuff from white people about their racism and then, and then, comes the BUT, but you did this, but the way you challenged me was fucked, but, but, but. For fucks sake. Forget about the BUT. Just swallow your fucken pride already, in doing the “but this”, you completely devalidate what you have just said. You take away from the issue, you avoid actually taking responsibility, you become the victim, you subtract from the issue. Why bother taking responsibility only to take it away again? Just concentrate on the actual issue you are been challenged on. Don’t make it into your injustices. You do not need to highlight someone’s shit way of dealing with stuff, someone’s shit communications skills, do it another time, don’t do it at all. You are been challenged on your racism. THAT IS THE IMPORTANT ISSUE HERE. JUST DEAL WITH THAT.
2. Oh yeah and the nice and short “are you turning pc on me”, when some white person actually called my friend who is a person of colour a nigger. Actually I’m just going to talk about the nigger thing. I’m still in actual awe that this person thinks that they are so down and in touch with black people that they can get away with that shit. What the fuck. The only thing I have to say to this is if you are white and think you have a right to call a person of colour a nigger, well get over it. Sorry, but you don’t get that privilege. I don’t care how un pc you are. You are an idiot for not recognising the history and intense power black people have in reclaiming that word. That word is not yours to use. Get it?
3. You are over reacting, too angry, too upset etc.
Ok, so do you know HOW MANY people of colour are thrust into the “too angry” box. Yawn. Don’t tell me that I need to learn how to manage my anger. fuck off. If you fail to recognise why HEAPS of people of colour are real angry then you need to realise your living in Australia or some shit. Serious man, I know that most of your friends are white, but wake up. We live in a COLONISED country. We live in a country with intensely racist immigration laws. WE LIVE IN A RACIST COUNTRY. HELLO???
Now, if you tell me I’m over reacting. I’m gonna tell you, you’re living off indigenous blood, off the genocide of indigenous people. You’re living off the blood of people of colour that work there fucken arses off in this country so that they can send their fucken kids to uni, whilst, been spat at on the street by white people and told to “go home”. My “over reaction” to your racism is from a life time of been told I am less then you, I belong less then you, I deserve less then you. So once again, fuck off.
4. Also there is the one where, especially white women do this, is equate race issues to feminist issues or some people equate it to class issues. Ok, so firstly, I am a women and a women of colour, all those issues that you speak of and say, “yeah I understand”, well, I understand them too. But not only do I understand those, I have to understand how race/class/gender all shape how I am treated, my place in society and my place in history. I know that it is really hard as a woman to feel like you could be the oppressor, because you are oppressed, but man, you have to remember that women of colour are oppressed by you, that women of colour are dealt some really shit blows cos of their skin, and add class stuff to that, well it’s not good news down the bottom. The issues are very different, and you will never understand them. Please don’t attempt to create links so that you can appear like you do.
So I’m sure there are shit loads of these types of responses that people have had to face, I guess these are just the ones I have come across. I can’t actually be bothered writing more, hey I have an idea, why don’t you guys get together and write about your own shit responses. HA.
Hey I have an answer. SHUT UP AND LISTEN. DO THE WORK BUT DONT EXPECT CREDIT FOR IT. BUT LIKE ACUALLY DO THE WORK. BE A FRIEND. BE AN ANTI RACIST FRIEND. ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR RACISM.
From battle
this is my personal views and experiences on this stuff, I am by no means speaking on behalf of all people of colour, even though I am asked by a lot of you to do that (fucked up).
I also don’t need to hear about your pissed off reactions to this. I don’t care, cos you know what, I got bigger things to worry about, like been a person of colour in this fucken shit fuck racist country.
Firstly I’m going to start by saying I am not going to use the phrase “calling people out on their shit”, please please, keep this language exclusive to sexual assault stuff. It’s really fucking important and if you don’t understand why then talk to me about it. I’m going to say when challenging people on their shit, or racist behaviour or their racism. Ok so, in the past few years whenever this has happened in Melbourne, in my group of friends, community, extended community, there has been this really big problem. Now I’m a person of colour and am already pissed off that I have to write this but it seems as though there is this really big lack of education of white people in this community surrounding race stuff. So the problem is right, well, if any of you people had actually read about this shit, which you all seem to tell me you do, is some pretty basic, well known and well written about responses when people are challenged on their racism. “The so called, what not to do’s”. This is what I’m going to talk about here. People’s fucken wack, bullshit, whatever responses. Responses that make me cringe, laugh, cry, get real angry and in the end, just want to fast pace EXIT outta this scene.
1. Firstly I’m gonna start talking about the ye olde “self defensiveness”, “denial” and the “BUT”.
So on a theory level it’s very interesting to note that denial and defensiveness is quite often connected to fear of loss. Those of you who are friends with people of colour are probably shit scared of losing those friendships in acknowledging the differences between us and or your own racism. One really great and potent form of denial and defensiveness is intellectualising. When you say all the right things and use an intellectual understanding of racism to distance yourself from how you perpetuate and benefit from racism. Please don’t insult me by telling me you are reading bell hooks, Malcolm x, audre lorde etc. Do you know that most of these black authors who you say you have read, wrote specifically for a black audience. They were not writing to educate white people. They were writing to educate and inspire and empower their own people. I’m not telling you not to read them, fuck, education is really important, but remember, these books are not yours to be inspired by, they are not yours to appropriate, to quote, to tell people of colour that you are somehow trying to be anti racist by reading this shit, seriously, it’s insulting. It also seeks to separate you from other white people. Don’t do it. You perpetrate and benefit from systematic racism, you benefit from white privilege. YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT.
Also time and time again I’ve heard some really cool stuff from white people about their racism and then, and then, comes the BUT, but you did this, but the way you challenged me was fucked, but, but, but. For fucks sake. Forget about the BUT. Just swallow your fucken pride already, in doing the “but this”, you completely devalidate what you have just said. You take away from the issue, you avoid actually taking responsibility, you become the victim, you subtract from the issue. Why bother taking responsibility only to take it away again? Just concentrate on the actual issue you are been challenged on. Don’t make it into your injustices. You do not need to highlight someone’s shit way of dealing with stuff, someone’s shit communications skills, do it another time, don’t do it at all. You are been challenged on your racism. THAT IS THE IMPORTANT ISSUE HERE. JUST DEAL WITH THAT.
2. Oh yeah and the nice and short “are you turning pc on me”, when some white person actually called my friend who is a person of colour a nigger. Actually I’m just going to talk about the nigger thing. I’m still in actual awe that this person thinks that they are so down and in touch with black people that they can get away with that shit. What the fuck. The only thing I have to say to this is if you are white and think you have a right to call a person of colour a nigger, well get over it. Sorry, but you don’t get that privilege. I don’t care how un pc you are. You are an idiot for not recognising the history and intense power black people have in reclaiming that word. That word is not yours to use. Get it?
3. You are over reacting, too angry, too upset etc.
Ok, so do you know HOW MANY people of colour are thrust into the “too angry” box. Yawn. Don’t tell me that I need to learn how to manage my anger. fuck off. If you fail to recognise why HEAPS of people of colour are real angry then you need to realise your living in Australia or some shit. Serious man, I know that most of your friends are white, but wake up. We live in a COLONISED country. We live in a country with intensely racist immigration laws. WE LIVE IN A RACIST COUNTRY. HELLO???
Now, if you tell me I’m over reacting. I’m gonna tell you, you’re living off indigenous blood, off the genocide of indigenous people. You’re living off the blood of people of colour that work there fucken arses off in this country so that they can send their fucken kids to uni, whilst, been spat at on the street by white people and told to “go home”. My “over reaction” to your racism is from a life time of been told I am less then you, I belong less then you, I deserve less then you. So once again, fuck off.
4. Also there is the one where, especially white women do this, is equate race issues to feminist issues or some people equate it to class issues. Ok, so firstly, I am a women and a women of colour, all those issues that you speak of and say, “yeah I understand”, well, I understand them too. But not only do I understand those, I have to understand how race/class/gender all shape how I am treated, my place in society and my place in history. I know that it is really hard as a woman to feel like you could be the oppressor, because you are oppressed, but man, you have to remember that women of colour are oppressed by you, that women of colour are dealt some really shit blows cos of their skin, and add class stuff to that, well it’s not good news down the bottom. The issues are very different, and you will never understand them. Please don’t attempt to create links so that you can appear like you do.
So I’m sure there are shit loads of these types of responses that people have had to face, I guess these are just the ones I have come across. I can’t actually be bothered writing more, hey I have an idea, why don’t you guys get together and write about your own shit responses. HA.
Hey I have an answer. SHUT UP AND LISTEN. DO THE WORK BUT DONT EXPECT CREDIT FOR IT. BUT LIKE ACUALLY DO THE WORK. BE A FRIEND. BE AN ANTI RACIST FRIEND. ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR RACISM.
From battle
this is my personal views and experiences on this stuff, I am by no means speaking on behalf of all people of colour, even though I am asked by a lot of you to do that (fucked up).
I also don’t need to hear about your pissed off reactions to this. I don’t care, cos you know what, I got bigger things to worry about, like been a person of colour in this fucken shit fuck racist country.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
AXXIMILATION MIXTAPE
. 
EMAIL:
demonsandtheirmanifestations@gmail.com to get copies.
DEMO TAPE by axximilation
live recording
by axximilation
EMAIL:
demonsandtheirmanifestations@gmail.com to get copies.
DEMO TAPE by axximilation
live recording
by axximilation
Thursday, January 14, 2010
EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS
RE. Lady Luck
From a person of colour, present at last weeks lady luck performance.
Appropriation is everywhere and an inevitable part of art and performance, of culture, identity and movements. Ideas circulate, people work off each other and everyone is highly affected by the information that they are exposed to, and the circumstances, perspective and display of that information. The difference is, some are forced to be aware, and some aren’t. The construction of our society is racist; it serves white people and establishment of ingrained racism, to preserve white privilege through cultural ideas. Multiculturalism is a product of the system in which to make racism ok, it supports the stealing of culture. These ideas and appropriation of race are prevalent in performance. What matters is who does the appropriation, what context it appears in and the traits and underlying messages that are displayed. What matters is the history of that particular type of appropriation, the circumstances, the reasons in which that appropriation was undertaken and the results of that.
A Japanese teen wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a big American company is not the same as Madonna sporting a bindii as part of her latest reinvention. European, White, Caucasian, has the power, privilege and glory in its history. Asian, African, Indigenous people have the exploitation, slavery, genocide and shame in their history. The cultural appropriation by white people of other cultures has existed, ever since white people found other cultures it seems. The appropriation began as a way of control, power, and wealth, using a tool of insult. In 1441, in Portugal they invented black face; it presented white people with black make up on depicting African features as grotesque. Black face, is alive and well in Australia.
Appropriation hasn’t been a burden on the white community, as it has people of colour communities. A lot of white people appropriate people of colour on a daily basis, because it has become so normalised and seemingly an intrinsic part of their personality, and identity, as white people “acting like black people”. A modern popular difference is that instead of the performance used as an insult, it is now cool, hot, sexy, and stylish to display black culture or traits. This is still not ok, it’s objectifying. Now as a lack of culture and community white people gravitate towards black peoples culture as something to latch onto, at despair of their own identities, which have been long lost and not recreated. Mixed identities and mixed race people also have to be careful in cultural appropriation, and even if ethnic backgrounds exist but are not visually definable in a performer, some form of acknowledgment has to take place, because an audience works, perceives on what it can see and hear, on face values.
People of colour have been studied by white people, whites have then asserted they have gained knowledge from those people, that they know their culture and that then have the power to recreate, perform and appropriate what they see. They have stolen culture, capitalised on culture. White people have in no way the right to do that, the knowledge is not complete or consensual, have in no way the sacred rite to perform a cultural ceremony, or re-enactment of that. There is a history of cultural, and spiritual performance, being appropriated into a sexualised display of exotica. Take the “hula” for example, a traditional Hawaiian dance. When Europeans colonised Hawaii, and came into contact with Hawaiian culture they perceived the women as sexually promiscuous because of their movements in the “Hula” dance. The hula dance is performed to show respect, and to honour the Hawaiian gods. For Hawaiian performers to make a mistake is disrespectful, for whites to interpret the “Hula” and recreate it without any form of spiritual understanding or respect, must be highly disrespectful.
This in turn is the breakdown and loss of culture, if its not respected, its broken, lost and forgotten, language, art, performance and tradition are disappearing every day.
One performance in particular I thought represented some of the negative elements of cultural appropriation I just discussed. Including the exotification, sexualisation of an unidentified non-white culture by a white appearing performer. Without recognition, acknowledgment or paid respects to what it was referencing, re-enacting or recreating. Without explanation of self-involvement, ancestral history to which the performer had entitlement. To me and my people of colour friends and some allies, we found the performance disrespectful and racist.
This is not intended as a personal insult, or an attack. It only seeks to create more awareness, and acknowledgment and respect, in the performing arts community, and wider community. I am willing to receive a response, and to continue discussion.
ANON.
RE. Lady Luck
From a person of colour, present at last weeks lady luck performance.
Appropriation is everywhere and an inevitable part of art and performance, of culture, identity and movements. Ideas circulate, people work off each other and everyone is highly affected by the information that they are exposed to, and the circumstances, perspective and display of that information. The difference is, some are forced to be aware, and some aren’t. The construction of our society is racist; it serves white people and establishment of ingrained racism, to preserve white privilege through cultural ideas. Multiculturalism is a product of the system in which to make racism ok, it supports the stealing of culture. These ideas and appropriation of race are prevalent in performance. What matters is who does the appropriation, what context it appears in and the traits and underlying messages that are displayed. What matters is the history of that particular type of appropriation, the circumstances, the reasons in which that appropriation was undertaken and the results of that.
A Japanese teen wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a big American company is not the same as Madonna sporting a bindii as part of her latest reinvention. European, White, Caucasian, has the power, privilege and glory in its history. Asian, African, Indigenous people have the exploitation, slavery, genocide and shame in their history. The cultural appropriation by white people of other cultures has existed, ever since white people found other cultures it seems. The appropriation began as a way of control, power, and wealth, using a tool of insult. In 1441, in Portugal they invented black face; it presented white people with black make up on depicting African features as grotesque. Black face, is alive and well in Australia.
Appropriation hasn’t been a burden on the white community, as it has people of colour communities. A lot of white people appropriate people of colour on a daily basis, because it has become so normalised and seemingly an intrinsic part of their personality, and identity, as white people “acting like black people”. A modern popular difference is that instead of the performance used as an insult, it is now cool, hot, sexy, and stylish to display black culture or traits. This is still not ok, it’s objectifying. Now as a lack of culture and community white people gravitate towards black peoples culture as something to latch onto, at despair of their own identities, which have been long lost and not recreated. Mixed identities and mixed race people also have to be careful in cultural appropriation, and even if ethnic backgrounds exist but are not visually definable in a performer, some form of acknowledgment has to take place, because an audience works, perceives on what it can see and hear, on face values.
People of colour have been studied by white people, whites have then asserted they have gained knowledge from those people, that they know their culture and that then have the power to recreate, perform and appropriate what they see. They have stolen culture, capitalised on culture. White people have in no way the right to do that, the knowledge is not complete or consensual, have in no way the sacred rite to perform a cultural ceremony, or re-enactment of that. There is a history of cultural, and spiritual performance, being appropriated into a sexualised display of exotica. Take the “hula” for example, a traditional Hawaiian dance. When Europeans colonised Hawaii, and came into contact with Hawaiian culture they perceived the women as sexually promiscuous because of their movements in the “Hula” dance. The hula dance is performed to show respect, and to honour the Hawaiian gods. For Hawaiian performers to make a mistake is disrespectful, for whites to interpret the “Hula” and recreate it without any form of spiritual understanding or respect, must be highly disrespectful.
This in turn is the breakdown and loss of culture, if its not respected, its broken, lost and forgotten, language, art, performance and tradition are disappearing every day.
One performance in particular I thought represented some of the negative elements of cultural appropriation I just discussed. Including the exotification, sexualisation of an unidentified non-white culture by a white appearing performer. Without recognition, acknowledgment or paid respects to what it was referencing, re-enacting or recreating. Without explanation of self-involvement, ancestral history to which the performer had entitlement. To me and my people of colour friends and some allies, we found the performance disrespectful and racist.
This is not intended as a personal insult, or an attack. It only seeks to create more awareness, and acknowledgment and respect, in the performing arts community, and wider community. I am willing to receive a response, and to continue discussion.
ANON.
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