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enbycrip · 3 days

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A fascinating and bittersweet part of my family history here, and a sign of how the lives of very ordinary people end up entwined with the wider world, which here in Britain in the mid-20th century meant with Empire.

This book belonged to my Granda, from when he was sent to Kenya to do National Service. He was, of course, a working class white boy from urban Glasgow, who had already been working full time since he was 14. I grew up with his stories about his time out there - it was frightening, and difficult, because it was so different from what he knew, and he had no choice or say in where or when he went, but it was also incredibly exciting and interesting for him.

I’m entirely sure that he, like most of my family, was neurodivergent, and my guess is autistic; I recognise so many of his mannerisms and features from myself. That can only have made being suddenly moved right out of his context so much more difficult for him. I know he found army discipline initially very difficult; much like me, he always found being told what to do for no good reason incredibly challenging, and all his later jobs were either self-employed - he was a taxi driver for 30+ years - or very self-directed. But he also got to learn to drive a jeep, and then to join the Signals Corps and learn radio physics, which had been a special interest for him since he was a child, and he would never have managed to fund a university degree.

And of course, as this book shows, he got to meet incredibly interesting people from somewhere very different from his own culture, and learn to speak their language. When I was small, he told me a lot of the funniest stories, like the time he and his pal borrowed a couple of horses and mocked up cowboy outfits because all the Kenyan guys in his platoon had only really seen white people in cowboy movies before they joined up, and had a running joke that all of them were actually cowboys at home, so they could go in and be like “Yeehaw, you’ve found us out!”

But he also told me a lot of the stuff that bothered him about being part of the machinery of Empire even when I was small, and, as he said, “I was just a wee boy then myself and didn’t know anything about anything either”; things like him being put in command of a Kenyan squad of black soldiers literally just because he was white. He told me about being expected to give orders to this incredibly experienced sergeant in his forties, who had been through WWII, when he was a 17 year old working class boy from Glasgow, and being very much “there is no way this is remotely right, or makes any sense whatsoever.” My Granda, of course, was a member of the Communist Party, and I think being in the position of seeing - and having to be part of - colonialism and Empire close-up definitely influenced his politics later in life.

He also got to meet just ordinary Kenyan people too; he told me stories about going to the markets to buy stuff from old ladies who reminded him of the ladies selling in the Barras back in Glasgow, and when one of his guys got married and brought his new wife in to meet everyone. She was initially very nervous, but then laughed her head off as my Granda tried out his Swahili on her.

My Granda died in 2019, just a few months before COVID first hit. He’s still very present to me in so many ways - I have a photo of him up in my kitchen, and inherited his compost bins and rain butt for my garden - but I always think of him in particular when I’m working on my history stuff. I’m going to treasure this book.

I think a lot about this whenever anyone claims modern Brits “shouldn’t have to feel guilty about Empire”. This is a place where my direct family history intersects very directly with Empire just two generations back from me. And yes, my Granda was just a radio operator and a driver, was never more than a private, and happily left the army as soon as he could. But he was still part of the imperial machinery when Britain was doing horrendous shit in Kenya, little as he wanted to be, and much as he felt having to do that was imposed on him as a Scot for an English Empire.

And of course he, like I, grew up and have lived our lives in Glasgow, a city whose wealth was built on imports from sugar plantations, and imperial trade, and thus from slavery. And so both of us benefitted from that, despite being just ordinary working class people.

This is the nature of Empire. The benefits and the oppression are both frequently diffuse. Co-option happens. While some people benefit *enormously* - there are still many *incredibly* wealthy families descended from slave owners who have only used that wealth to further entrench their privilege - and far more only suffer exploitation, in such a vast institution so many people live in a complex place where they experience both benefits and exploitation, in a thousand complex variations.

So I don’t see it as being about “guilt”, but about acknowledgement, and about reparations. There are things I owe to people who are still experiencing adverse circumstances, poverty and exploitation now because of things the British Empire did that I am still benefitting from the results of. Sometimes that’s direct mutual aid, to individuals or organisations. Sometimes it’s fighting for my country to provide reparations, change its actions, or even just acknowledge actions and ongoing benefit. And sometimes it’s learning, and passing that knowledge on.

#family history #20th century history #national service #british empire #african history #kenyan history #scottish history #social history #long read #sorry I’m not that good at concise about this stuff #reparations #institutional racism

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enbycrip · 3 days

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Oh wow - that’s such an awesome blend of creative brilliance and sheer scientific nerdery! 😁 Well done, your grandpa!

#geology #scotland #cartography #creative cartography #oh wow

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enbycrip · 3 days

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He’s PERFECT

a raven father (i call him "pants") I've been feeding sometimes likes to sit outside my window and either wait for more food or just listen to the stuff I'm watching while I draw. Today's a colder day so he likes to fluff up a bit, and I kid you not :

this is an accurate representation of my view

#art #doodle #raven #excellent pants sir #he is so shaped today #goddamn perfection sir

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enbycrip · 4 days

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Do you know there was never a single fucking prosecution under section 28? Its whole fucking power was in its chilling effect. People feared losing their jobs; their kids; their livelihoods. People didn’t transition if they intended to stay in their jobs. Bodies didn’t support their queer members because legal advice leans very much “on the safe side just don’t”. So many, *many* queer people didn’t have the chance to produce queer art art and culture. The BBC didn’t produce shows written by out queer creatives or featuring queer characters unless they were going to go out after the watershed, and frequently much later at night. Many community venues didn’t host queer theatre or out queer bands. Queer parents didn’t dare enter into queer relationships while their children were young. People lived their lives in fear and pain. The whole thing was just meant to make it too fucking difficult for vulnerable and marginalised people to speak up about inclusion, or rights, or needs.

I think that’s what these new Tory “advisory guidelines” are intended to do to queer educators, students, teachers, parents, children, teenagers, librarians, medical professionals and creatives. Create a hostile environment for queer folk, especially trans binary and nonbinary folk.

#section 28 #uk politics #fuck the tories #queerphobia #transphobia #terf island

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enbycrip · 4 days

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My girlfriend’s kufiya from Hirbawi just came in and it’s gorgeous 🤍 Hirbawi is the last kufiya factory left in Palestine and I believe they are currently taking preorders if you want to support a Palestinian business and show your love and support of Palestine! 🇵🇸

#i believe she ordered it the last time they had preorders so it does take a little bit to come in #but it’s worth it!!!#free palestine #support palestine #hirbawi

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enbycrip · 4 days

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Indeed

So the U.K. Government has put out “advisory guidance” to U.K. schools saying they’re not allowed to teach that people like me exist.

The NUT (teacher’s Union) is standing solidly for trans rights so far but they are going to come under a LOT of pressure.

This is essentially heading for another Section 28. I grew up under that and it’s still screwing me up at 40. I *never* wanted another generation of queer kids, or queer adults, to have to deal with this.

At the same time Scotland is pushing an assisted dying law despite the fact that this is heading for disabled genocide in Canada and the Tories here are preparing to make disability benefits even fucking worse and more stressful as their election promise. And Keir Starmer takes Tory ideas as a cheat sheet.

I’m so fucking tired.

This is taking so much of the cope I don’t have for my dissertation due in on May 30th.

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enbycrip · 4 days

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I am *really* getting sick of people trying to use the “queer people shouldn’t support Palestine because they’d kill you for being queer there” card. Particularly at a time when institutional transphobia is ramping right up in the US and UK.

I’ve been in contact at various points over the last 10-15 years with queer Palestinians living authentically and with openly queer foreigners bringing in aid in solidarity. No one tried to lynch anyone. Pretty much everyone was kind and welcoming to foreigners.

Queer Palestinian lives are made *so*, *so* much worse by *the fucking ongoing genocide* than by homegrown queerphobia that trying to even compare them is sort of horrifically laughable? Honestly, they seem to be facing the same kind of level of that *from some people* that I and people I know face pretty regularly? It’s unfun, and I’d very much like better for all of us, but it’s hardly comparable to *being fucking bombed into the ground*.

This is just Islamophobia with a queerbaiting flavour. The implication that every country with a Muslim population is the same as extremist Islamist theocracies where queer folk are judicially murdered is just incredibly racist.

Queer Muslims - including trans binary and nonbinary Muslims - and queer folks who are culturally Muslim whether they actively practice or not exist all over the world, same as queer folks from every other faith community and cultural background. The othering of Muslim people is really shitty and I refuse to see my marginalised community used in this way even when it’s *not* being used as a cover for a racist genocide.

#free palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #end the genocide #queer muslims #solidarity

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enbycrip · 5 days

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I had a bit of a complete freak out this afternoon where I just couldn’t think about how to put all the research I’ve been able to gather into a coherent argument, and was lying on the floor considering that I had totally fucked everything up and would basically need to go and find out how to defer and start the dissertation year all over again.

And then I started trying to put down an introduction, and suddenly a coherent question that *would* work with all the information I’ve been able to gather just *clicked* into place. This has been a big problem for me all through this; I’ve had the broad idea but finding the evidence to refine it as specifically as it needs has been the biggest thing my supervisor has kept stressing I’ve needed through all the drafts so far.

And that’s my introduction finished now and tomorrow I start on fitting the chapter drafts I did earlier into that framework.

Turns out I *can* do this. And I *will* do this, despite my intersecting disability issues and lack of access to treatment I *really* need having really kicked my ass on this one.

#academia #disabled academia #history #early modern history #my masters degree #disability #disabled #disableism #chronic illness #chronic pain #chronic fatigue #autistic adult #adult adhd

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enbycrip · 5 days

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I fucken love this.

People have always been little weirdos about our little weirdo fur children ❤️🐈‍⬛❤️

The tailors at Colonial Williamsburg made a suit for their cat

#history #cats #salem is that you #cats in history #us history #children’s occupational history

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enbycrip · 5 days

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So the U.K. Government has put out “advisory guidance” to U.K. schools saying they’re not allowed to teach that people like me exist.

The NUT (teacher’s Union) is standing solidly for trans rights so far but they are going to come under a LOT of pressure.

This is essentially heading for another Section 28. I grew up under that and it’s still screwing me up at 40. I *never* wanted another generation of queer kids, or queer adults, to have to deal with this.

At the same time Scotland is pushing an assisted dying law despite the fact that this is heading for disabled genocide in Canada and the Tories here are preparing to make disability benefits even fucking worse and more stressful as their election promise. And Keir Starmer takes Tory ideas as a cheat sheet.

I’m so fucking tired.

This is taking so much of the cope I don’t have for my dissertation due in on May 30th.

#disabled #disability #disableism #chronic illness #chronic pain #chronic fatigue #trans #nonbinary #queer #transphobia #terf island #oh ffs

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enbycrip · 5 days

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Don’t you tell him what to do

#basset #basset hound #dog #pup posting #baby #it’s his ear he can chew it if he wants to

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enbycrip · 6 days

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Two digital animal sketches in Medibang with the Apple Pencil because I needed to do *something* briefly creative or I was going to explode. I’m getting so damn frustrated with searching for what I’m looking for in 17th and 18th century newspapers and pamphlets in databases

One corvid (I think rook?) pinching horsehair from a horse’s rump for her nest, and one baby possum pinching a drink from a doggo’s bowl on a porch, both using random photos from the internet as a reference.

They’re not good but they’ve got…something? An energy I like?

#a queer crip grows #animals #possum #corvid #rook #animal sketch #my art #digital art #disabled artist #not good art

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enbycrip · 7 days

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For all my nonbinary spectrum peeps, the Gender Survey is live!

The 2024 Gender Census is now open!

[ Link to survey ]

The 11th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th June 2024.

It’s short and easy, about 5 minutes probably.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful - it’s what helped us get 40,000 responses last year.

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

For the curious, you can also spy on some graphs and demographic data for the incoming responses here.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

Image credit: Malachite and rhodochrosite.

#survey #gc2024 #gender census #gender #nonbinary #trans nonbinary #genderqueer #genderfluid #genderfae #genderfaun #genderflux #genderfuck

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enbycrip · 8 days

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So should I miraculously ever achieve top surgery, how tasteless would it be to refer to it as “crossing the boobicon”?

#it’s not going to happen #because I’ve got so much medical ptsd I can’t even tolerate pain clinics #but I can dream right #puns

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enbycrip · 9 days

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everyone please read this and share if you can.

Brazil is going through one of the worst climatic crisis ever seen.

i live in the southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul. we have been suffering from extreme, nonstop rainstorms for a week now. the rivers are flooding, reaching 4-6 meters above their natural level. people are being rescued by helicopters, neighborhoods are being evacuated. entire cities are slowly but surely becoming submerged in water. 60 people missing and counting. 32 deaths and counting.

and this is not new. last november also had a flood like this one. 50 dead, many material losses. it happened again this january, with thousands being left without power or water for days.

three catastrophical disasters within less than a year. three disasters only a few months apart.

this is not natural.

unsustainable agricultural practices and politics led to this. a complete disregard for nature led to this. greed led to this. always greed.

when it comes to the climate crisis, i cannot stress this enough: we need to act now if we still want to live. disasters like this are going to happen more often and they're going to be much, much worse. this flood is being considered the worst climatic catastrophe in the history of my state. i don't know how long it will take for another bigger one to happen and take its place. i just know it will be sooner than it should.

links to donate (if you can't donate, sharing already helps a lot):

link for non-brazilians (paybox)

link for brazilians

pix assufrgs

will update more links later. in the meantime, pray for us.

#please share if you can #rio grande do sul #brasil #brazil #climate emergency #climate catastrophe #climate crisis #climate change #climate action

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enbycrip · 9 days

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