cognitivedissonance: self-styled-iconoclast: nayyirahwaheed: unbreakbrokengirl: dykeprivilege: unbre

cognitivedissonance:self-styled-iconoclast:nayyirahwaheed:unbreakbrokengirl:dykeprivilege:unbreakbrokengirl:thickbrownsludgemonster:unbreakbrokengirl:nayyirahwaheed:nayyirahwaheed:mendyourmind:terrible picture but yay I got a tattoo I’ve been wanting for a while yesterday. thank you Nayyirah Waheed for some of the lost important words in my life.mendyourmind answered you:nayyirahwaheed asked:Peace :) I just saw the picture of your tattoo of my poem ‘tourist.’ I was wondering why you chose this piece/ that phrase ?hello, basically it just describes my situation perfectly. I have been travelling through Europe alone for the last two months with another month before I go back home, before the next two years when I’ll be moving to live in toe new countries. I just feel the phrase encapsulates everything I think; have fun, see new places and when the beauty/enjoyment of the place begins to wear thin, find somewhere new. I’m just so thankful that I found your words, and the way they allow me to understand my current life philosophy in such a direct, uninhibited way.“go.enjoy.leave.it was all about you, anyway.”▼  tourist, nayyirah waheed (via nayyirahwaheed)this is my original piece, clearly addressing the ills of tourism, so, this person changing the original sentiment/essence to  glorify tourism, to use my work to express their life philosophy of getting to”see new places and when the beauty/enjoyment of the place begins to wear thin, find somewhere new,” is incredibly disrespectful, smacking of white privilege, and the essence of the very colonizing thoughts/behaviors i am speaking out against in the poem.andit is incredibly distressing that you would change my words to fit your philosophy, and then thank me for writing ‘some of the most important words in your life.’as a woc, i am not here to educate you. i am not here to edify and feed you. changing your life is not my purpose on this earth, not when there are black and brown people losing life/ have been losing lives everyday. if you knew about me, you would know that i write first and foremost for poc. in fact, this very poem was speaking of what happens to our lands as poc.this whole thing is white privilege and an presumption of accessibility to me and my work that you think you have, but in fact, do not have. from choosing my poem/ this poem without any thought to who i am as a woc artist who is vocal about the integrity of her work, to changing the meaning/and picking pieces of my poem to fit your ‘life philosophy,’ to posting it under my tag with my name, it is all wrong. every part of it. so what you got tattooed on your arm is in fact not my work, but something you appropriated, a mangled version of something very painful, beautiful, and honest.How can you be angry at someone for loving words that you have created? You say her perception of your words are wrong and in turn, she is disrespecting you. But that is what those words mean to her. This is why writing is so beautiful, because it can mean different things to different individuals. Surely, if she was a black woman, you would not be so offended.Wow you aren’t seriously defending this are? Her being white has nothing to do with it nay aha come at both white and black folk for disrespecting her and her work! This woman took an artist words and emotions and twisted them for her own, THIS IS NOT HER SHOWING RESPECT and you have the nerve to defend such blatant disrespect and disregard of Nay and her work. Fuck you because obviously you know nothing about Nay and her work! “She were black it would be different” pssshh bitch get real!!I know enough about her AND her work. But it’s not a reader’s fault for interpreting her work in a way of their own. Go. Enjoy. Leave. Sounds like go somewhere, enjoy yourself and then leave. So the words are meant for tourists that visit new places enjoy new cultures and leave. THATS EXACTLY WHAT THE GIRL WAS DOING. Shes a white girl, hence why it is so offensive.It’s a critique of the ethos of tourism, to use those words and twist them into acelebration of tourism shows not respecting an artist enough to listen to her wordsI understand that. That makes perfect sense. But Nay could have just explained to the girl the true meaning of her poem, since she was mistaken. And not taken it any further. Poetry has a lot to do with a person’s perception whether the poet likes it or not. And since she said this girl was showing “white privilege” is why I said that if it was a black person, maybe it would not have been such a huge deal.white privilege is feeling the need to minimize this occurrence so deeply that you are referring to me as nay. white privilege is seeking to give me a nickname (establishing some sort of intimacy/ boundary crossing/ presumed accessibility) at the same time you are seeking to invalidate my experience. no need to keep sending messages to my inbox, or commenting on this post, everything you are asserting is a moot point, as you clearly are confused on the very issues this post is addressing. i leave the conversation here.To me, this is the essence of appropriation; reaching into something you don’t fully understand, pulling out the bits you like, leaving out the parts you don’t, and justify it by saying it’s “tribute” or “honoring” where it came from. It morphs and mutilates the intent in a way that it’s familiar enough to be associated with the original, but the true purpose it lost. Any impact it may have had is compromised.Personally, I look at that tattoo, and I see some flaky, tawdry hipster crap stereotype. I see a desaturated picture of some birds flying above the ocean and some flowery, text overlay of a hollow platitude, like "Do everything; regret nothing.” I see a yin yang surrounded by generic pastel flowers, while all the nuanced messages and philosophies and lessons of Taoism are met with blank or condescending stares.I see willful ignorance in the face of an aimless attempt to come off as “deep,” “well-rounded,” or “spiritual.”Stop hack-and-slashing other people’s meanings and find your own.That last line. And the commentary on why it’s 100% awful to take another person’s work and change the meaning with condescending cherry-picking. Ladies, Gentleman, and worthy individuals who do not identify with a binary gender, I present to you exhibit 29-C in my case for “Irony as a cosmic force”. -- source link

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