wocinsolidarity:nayyirahwaheed: nayyirahwaheed:mendyourmind:terrible picture but yay I got a tat
wocinsolidarity: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. and it 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. 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. !!!!!!! -- source link
#nayyirah.waheed#white privilege#white entitlement#tourism#racism#poetry#tattoo#appropriation#powerful stuff