This blog is dedicated to resources surrounding social justice movements. Feel free to send a message - the ask box is always open! Previously known as Fashion of Fandoms
y’all things are actually serious here in Texas, tons of people are without power and temperatures are at record lows. it’s supposed to snow again tonight and a lot of people are stuck where they are with limited, if any, resources, food, and water.
I’m linking a few mutual aids below, please consider donating if you’re able and/or share this!! if there are other orgs y’all know feel free to add them!
UPDATE: CONSOLIDATED RESOURCES (I will continue to update this post, please check the replies for additional info)
FOR PPL IN THE DFW AREA: CLICK HERE for a doc with info on warming shelters, hotels, grocery stores, etc. that are open!! if you need help finding a warming shelter call 211. you can also follow @feedtheppldfwon twitter, their venmo: @feedthepeopledallas and cashapp: $feedtheppldtx
RESOURCE FORM for those in DALLAS OR HOUSTON who need shelter, food, etc.
AUSTIN MUTUAL AID now has 2 VENMOS: @austinmutualaidhotels and @austinmutualaid (via their ig: @austinmutualaid) follow them on instagram for updated resources and information. @whenwherewhataustin on instagram is also posting resources and updated info
northerners or people from naturally cold climates making fun of texans rn are a joke lmfao. as if u guys understand the urgency that is going on in that state currently. it would be like if minnesota hit 120F for a week. people would literally die because they are NOT equipped to handle it. likewise, our homes are not built for cold - they’re build to keep heat out. we don’t have heavy winter clothes. we dont have shovels or scrapers. we can’t drive anywhere to get items that we might need. our emergency vehicles cannot handle this. power is going out consistently. the low income & homeless population are disproportionally affected by this and we cannot currently keep up with the energy demand.
our houses are literally made to release heat. think about that, y’all. 4 million texans are without power in homes that were built to get rid of heat. a lot of texans don’t even have cars that can manage over the current ice/snow that is our roads, nor do most of us own shovels for digging the snow out of our driveways. some of us are stranded in our cold homes that are dipping into the 30F range. i and most other texans don’t even have a jacket bigger than a hoodie. it’s not funny
advice from a northerner:
I’m from Wisconsin, spent nearly all my life there. Now I live I’m Kansas City, spending my first winter here. And let me tell you- When it comes to snow, winter is WAY harder the farther south you get. Not because south gets more snow than the north (because it doesn’t) but because southern states are NOT EQUIPT to handle snow!
In Wisconsin, when it’d snow, we’d get a lot and it’d be bad. But once it stopped snowing, within 2 hours *all* the roads are plowed and you are pretty much good to go with a little caution and snow tires. Because we have ARMIES of heavy duty snow plows with BUNKERS full on salt and sand to combat ice. Southern states don’t have that, so when you get snow- it stays there until enough cars drive over it to pull it away. Its been a few days since it actually snowed but some roads and highway lanes still have a thick layer of snow because there just arent enough plows or knowledge how to deal with it properly.
So coming from someone who’s lived in the upper north and upper south- and someone who’s lived in their car before
Cars/Driving:
If you absolutely have to drive somewhere. DRIVE SLOW- I know that sounds obvious but if you always think you’re driving slow enough- You Aren’t. Drive Slower.
Before you leave- make sure your phone is charged and you have a tow companies number plugged into your phone.
KEEP MORE THAN A CARS LENGTH DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND THE CARS IN FRONT AND BEHIND YOU WHILE DRIVING!!! I cannot stress this enough! If you or the person behind you’d tires start to skid when they break (and they will) they’re is nothing to stop them from running into the car in front of them. Keep A CARS LENGTH DISTANCE at stop lights!! You know Neuton’s Craddle?? Thats you and the cars in front of you if you dont have enough space. One car hits into another hits into another hits into another. Except you keep getting pushed forward.
Always assume someone might slide through an intersection and wait a few extra seconds before going once the light turns green if traffic is still coming.
Even if the rest if the road is clear, Those little patches of snow in between lanes and on the side of the road are dangerous!! If you have to switch lanes or have your tires cross them for any reason, take extra care and very slowly ease through the patches. If you hit them to suddenly or quickly you WILL spin out!
If you have to choose between hiting another car(or other physical property) & going in a ditch- pick the ditch. It’s safer for you and other drivers if you get out of harm’s way. Plus- Tows are relatively cheep. Paying car damages and higher insurance rates are not.
IF YOU GO IN THE DITCH and are waiting for a tow truck DO NOT LEAVE THE CAR RUNNING IF YOUR TAILPIPE IS COVERED BY SNOW (or anything else for that matter) you could die of CO2 poisoning. Being cold for a little bit is better than dead forever.
I know a lot of southern cars don’t have heaters in them but if you’re does, let it run for a few minutes with the heat blasting on the Windows- it helps soften up ice on the windshield.
Keep your lights on in anytime it’s snowing. Even in daylight.
If your car has light snow that blows very easily, you can just use your wipers to get some snow off.
If your car has dense, heavy snow or ice, dont use the wipers. The weight and ice will rip up the wipers and may even break them, especially back windshield wipers! My back one snapped this winter because I overestimated what it could handle.
If you don’t have scrapers/brushes for your windows- You can use a sturdy credit card to scrape windows, and brooms to brush off snow.
Don’t forget to scrape your mirrors and brush the snow off your lights. If the snow is very light, brush off the hood and too of the car too. Otherwise once you hit higher speeds itll fly up and block your windows again.
When you leave your car outside and its going to snow or rain and then freeze, lift you wipers off the car and leave them up. Then they dont get frozen in place.
ASSUME EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE A TERRIBLE DRIVER.
Home/Heat:
Let your faucets drip when it gets below freezing, especially at night. The water flow helps prevent your pipes from freezing and bursting. Yes. Bursting. They don’t need to be running, just dripping a little. Normally I’d sugest just to do the pipes in outside facing wall but if you’re that far south it might be a good idea to let them all your faucets drip a little.
If you have power, you might be tempted to use a space heater but those suck up A LOT of power and might not be the best idea.
Keep doors and curtains closed, it helps keep the heat in.
Use your hand to check for drafts! Doors and Windows are the more obvious draft spots but pretty much any seam in your house can be a spot for the cold air to rush in. When you find a spot, especially the bottoms of door frames you can bunch up a towel on the drafty seam to help keep the heat in.
Seal up drafty windows!! If the stores are out of the kits made to swap windows you can replicate the same idea with garbage bags and quality painters tape!
If you are out of power/heat- Find the room that holds the most warmth in your house and have everyone sleep there. Keep the door closed, place a towel or blanket on the door crack and have a slumber party. The more bodies, the more heat.
Layer up your blankets!! Pile on those pillows!! Just as long as you DON’T SWEAT. Stay warm, not hot.
Clothes:
Just because you dont have winter clothes doesn’t mean you are going to freeze, use what you have and layer up. (I’ve slept in my car on mountains without wearing “winter clothes”.
¡¡¡MUST READ BEFORE LAYERING!!! Layers are both your friend & the enemy. Keeping warm is gonna be a lot of people’s #1 goal right now- but do NOT make yourself so warm that you sweat!! Being cold is okay- being cold and wet greatly increases your hypothermia risks. So yes layer up, but don’t go overboard.
AVOID FABRICS THAT MAKE YOU SWEAT - MOISTURE WICKING FABRIC IS YOUR FRIEND especially for the fabrics closest to your body
Layering tips for someone who’s never had to bundle up before and has limited resources:
BOTTOMS: underwear, leggings(moisture wicking), socks ×2. Then add a pair of pants or two from there as needed.
TOPS: Tank/Tshrit(moisture wicking), long sleeve, sweatshirt
ESPECIALL IF YOU DO NOT HAVE HEAT SLEEP WITH A BEANIE, GLOVES, AND SOCKS ON. Head, feet and hands are where the heat from your body most escapes & most affected by frostbite.
If you don’t have gloves of any kind, just use socks. I know that might be kinda gross but work with whatever you’ve got
I can not repeat this enough: TAKE 👏 OFF 👏A 👏LAYER 👏WHEN 👏YOU👏 START 👏TO👏 SWEAT👏. I promise! You do not need to be afraid to take off layers when you get too warm!! Sweat is your enemy! Sweat is your enemy! Sweat is your enemy!
Pets:
DO 👏 NOT 👏 LEAVE 👏 YOUR 👏 PETS 👏 OUTSIDE 👏 UNATTENDED 👏 EVER If you are freaked out by this crazy cold weather, your pet will be too. Unless that pet is a full blooded Husky or other breed ment specifically for cold weather- they should not be out for more than a minute or two. Stand close by the door and as soon as they’re done with their business bring them inside. They can and will get freeze their paws.
If you have a husky or other cold breed dog, by all means let them play outside! (I know a husky in KC that they have to force her to come inside sometimes because she just loves the cold and the snow so much!) But still be weary, just because they can withstand the cold, doesnt mean they should. Dogs that have never experienced the cold might not enjoy it, even if they are bred for it. Let them try, see how they react, and if they arent keen, bring them back in right away.
Even if your dog loves the cold don’t let them stay out too long. Dogs don’t often know their limits, so do your job as a pet owner and set limits for them. (My dog loves to eat snow- instead of letting him stay outside and freeze his paws off, I scoop snow into a bowl and bring it in the house. Best of both worlds.)
This should go without saying but I’m gonna say it anyway… DON’T MAKE YOUR PETS SLEEP OUTSIDE!!
I dont really like making rebloggable posts but I haven’t seen anyone mention them yet: terracotta heaters are really easy and effective DYI heaters for cold emergencies and I think it might be helpful considering, you know
TDLR, place a candle of any size down, and put a terracotta pot (as large as possible preferably) over it, with something non-flammable and balanced to keep the bottom an inch or two off the ground, like bricks.
The candle will heat the terracotta, which will put off heat, while the space underneath lets smoke out and oxygen in. I’ve used these all 3 times we had outages here in Maine during blizzards to keep my aquariums warm, the weather outside had been easily -20 F with high winds, and not only was I cozy, that shit kept the water 10 degrees above room temperature. If it can heat the aquariums, it’ll heat a small room.
They work so much better than you’d think, the heat they put off is insane. Obviously be careful because smoke and open flame, but they’re very easy to make and just need an eye kept on them on all times.
Don’t touch the heated pot bare-handed, it’ll burn like a motherfucker, they get VERY hot. Use thick oven mitts or layered rags to remove pot, put the candle out first if you can manage. Don’t do more than one or two in a non-ventilated or closed room, it’s still making smoke and that can make it harder to breathe.
[ID: Two bricks are laid flat, two bricks are stacked on top on their sides. A candle is in a jar inbetween and is lit. A large terracotta pot is balanced on the second, higher set of bricks so it is above the candle and off the ground. End Id]
In light of JK’s new book, here’s a link to donate to the UK Charity Mermaids who help provide support to trans and gender diverse children and young people!
My name is Kristoff Alcock. A soon to be second year radiography student at the university of the West Indies. I humbly made this Gofundme account requesting some financial assistance in continuing my studies. In the future I plan to become a Radiation Therapist as I love helping people who are in need. I currently live with my grandmother and it is hard for her to send me to university due to the fact that she way over the age of retirement. Nonetheless at her age of 75 years old, she still goes out and try to do day to day jobs by cleaning various households etc. just to provide for me and my siblings. My mother is a maintenance officer as she does what she can but due to bills and taking care of my other siblings it is hard for her to send me to university. Over the past year, I had gotten assistance from my Aunt who is situated in the states. She has provided nothing but endless support for my first year, finding all my expenses (tuition, living expenses and pocket money). However, due to the pandemic, she is unable to continue supporting me at her full capacity as she would definitely liked to do.
I try not to feel discouraged as God has set a specific path for me and He has provided so many opportunities for me in the past year as without Him I don’t think I would be here for school. It is safe to say that I use my disadvantages as a form of motivation to do well and with that drive I was able to obtain a 3.52 GPA despite doing 13 courses per semester. It was really rough but I still prevailed with nothing but the Grace of God and my drive to do well.
Any financial help would be greatly appreciated in my path to a successful future. Thank you so much.
The Uighurs are mostly Muslims, and number about 11 million in western China’s Xinjiang region. They see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations, and their language is similar to Turkish.
But
in recent decades, there’s been a mass migration of Han Chinese
(China’s ethnic majority) to Xinjiang, and the Uighurs feel their
culture and livelihoods are under threat.
Nowhere in the world, not even in North Korea, is the population
monitored as strictly as it is in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Oppression has been in place for years, but has worsened massively in recent months.
- Uighurs can no longer openly practice Islam
- Men are not allowed to wear beards. Exception only for old people
- They can no longer learn their native language at school
- They cannot move freely around the country and cannot leave it
- All mosques have been turned into shops and office centers
Beijing has also turned
Xinjiang into a security state that is extreme even by China’s
standards, being a police state itself. The provincial government has recruited over
90,000 police officers in the last two years alone - twice as many as
it recruited in the previous seven years.
At the same time, Beijing is equipping the far-western region with
state-of-the-art surveillance technology, with cameras illuminating
every street all over the region, from the capital Urumqi to the most
remote mountain village. Iris scanners and WiFi sniffers are in use in
stations, airports and at the ubiquitous checkpoints - tools and
programs that allow data traffic from wireless networks to be monitored.
Checkpoints are installed in every district of the city. In simple terms, you can not get from one area of the city to another without passing the checkpoint and the police.
The data is then collated by an “integrated joint operations
platform” that also stores further data on the populace – from consumer
habits to banking activity, health status and indeed the DNA profile of
every single inhabitant of Xinjiang.
Anyone with a potentially suspicious data trail can be detained. The
government has built up a grid of hundreds of re-education camps. Tens
of thousands of people have disappeared into them in recent months.
“Qu xuexi,” meaning to go or be sent to study, is one of the most common expressions in Xinjiang these days. It is a euphemism for having been taken away and not having been seen or heard from since. The “schools” are re-education centers in which the detainees are being forced to take courses in Chinese and patriotism, without any indictment, due process or a fair hearing.
Xinjiang, one of the most remote and backward regions in booming China,
has become a real-life dystopia. It provides a glimpse of what an
authoritarian regime armed with 21st century technology is capable of.
Uighurs are very intimidated and refuse to talk to the press, even if they miraculously escaped the country.
What’s happening in China is terrible. Maybe some people finally realize that the
concentration
camps are the reality of our time. There are concentration camps in America too. Don’t forget that.
Glad I learned about this in school. I’m sure not many people have though, so here. It’s terrible.
The situation with Chinese internment camps for the Uighur people is only going to become more aggressive unless they are pressured from other countries. For that to happen more people need to be informed on what’s happening, but unfortunately the nature of Chinese security makes it difficult to find a plethora of first hand sources, apparently.
If you’d rather listen to a basic outline of the problem, here’s a very well done conversation piece from Chris Hayes’s podcast, Why is This Happening.
chadwickboseman It is with immeasurable grief that we confirm the passing of Chadwick Boseman.
Chadwick was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, and battled with it these last 4 years as it progressed to stage IV.
A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much. From Marshall to Da 5 Bloods, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and several more, all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy.
It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther. He died in his home, with his wife and family by his side.
The family thanks you for your love and prayers, and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.
Be careful when you donate to different organizations!!!! Because of the way the lebanese system works, some donations may be considered illegal and can’t be accepted! Lebanese Red Cross is one of the legal ones, so if you can donate, do it!
If you know any other organizations that are okay to donate to, please add!!
Right now, Beirut looks like a war zone. The city center is only about a kilometer away from the blast site, and is completely ruined. Buildings as far as 20 kilometers away were heavily damaged.
A lot of people are still missing in the ruins, and families are desperately trying to find them. Lots of people lost their homes and have nowhere to go.
Newest update - Ralph and his whole team that went out to help except for Sahar Fares are still missing, and unfortunarely, Sahar has been confirmed to have passed away. May she rest in peace, my condolences to her family. The firefighters were the first on the scene of the explosion and their families fear what might have happened to them and don’t know where they are, so if we could please spread it so maybe it can get to somebody with answers, that would be much appreciated.
There’s been a massive explosion in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut. Many are feared to be injured and the hospitals there are in dire need of blood donations. Please help any way you can, even if you can only share this, please do that!
“Stop scrolling and please help me spread the word, because if I’ve landed on your page you’re most likely either a black woman or someone who cares about black women and the simple phrase I’m about to share could help save a black woman’s life.
Doctors are to black women what police officers are to black men. That may seem controversial but I believe it to be true and I speak from personal experience.
If you’ve seen this TikTok you know that a 2016 study showed that 50% of medical students and residents thought that black people couldn’t feel pain the same as white people.
And we learned from this video that because of a 1999 study, to this day, there’s a black correction factor for the creatinin levels in black people’s kidneys, meaning we’re less likely to recieve a kidney transplant if needed.
So if you go to a doctor, feel you aren’t getting proper treatment or they refuse the treatment you’ve requested, say to them the following:
I will need you to document on record that you are refusing the treatment (or medicine) I’ve requested, and the reason you are doing so.”
This is all from yesterday evening (7/18/20). Don’t let anyone think the BLM protests have died down or aren’t well-attended anymore. Thousands of people are still gathering on the streets in many cities to demand abolition of the police and accountability for victims of state-sanctioned murders.
