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Machistado

@machistado / machistado.tumblr.com

This blog is purely for impulsivity. Also known as MohandasGandhi.

Wow, Kanye. I wish I made nearly $100,000 a year, $46.25 an hour. God, what a tough life Yeezy’s financially destitute friends have. 

Yes, textbook prices are outrageous and if even the wealthy have problems buying educational materials, that shows the severe magnitude of the problem but if you’re going to claim you’re a man of the people, find some real people first. Get out.

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when you complain about Sephardim from Turkey “stealing” Turkish cuisine, Iraqi Jews for “stealing” Iraqi cuisine, Moroccan Jews for “stealing” Moroccan cuisine, etc. you are making it clear that Jews, no matter how assimilated, were never actually part of these cultures themselves but were outsiders, “other” and the fact that they’ve retained any aspect of the cultures that were forced on them for centuries in Israel is infuriating. That’s what you’re saying. And it’s blatantly antisemitic.

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And that’s not even mentioning how much has been taken from Jewish culture by non-Jews, which is completely acceptable because…oh right, it’s also blatantly antisemitic.

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ariminak

^^^ This mix is what makes our food rich, cuisine is a living element, when you’re in a region you use what is around you and incorporate it to your dishes. I don’t understand how someone could say we’re stealing our own cuisine, it is a testimony of our passage through countries that rejected us at some point and our fight against assimilation.

As an Ashkenazi Jew, I am officially informing you that if you are not Jewish and you grew up in New York eating bagels, you are now stealing Jewish culture. Bagels are no longer “New York” food. They are Jew food. You are all thieves and should be ashamed. I don’t care that your family has been there since the 1870s and your great great grandfather bought the very first bagel baked on New York soil. You have no right to that heritage. There is no such thing as “New York” deli. There is Jewish Deli, there is Italian Deli. You must beg our respective forgivenesses before partaking in either cuisine. /sarcasm

When you are talking about Jews of MENA’s relationships with their food, it goes back centuries longer than Ashkenazi food’s cultural heritage in New York City. And yet somehow the notion of “New York Deli” is considered non-appropriative even though it has roots in very specific cultures. Jews have been in MENA since our origins. As such, MENA Jews have played a role in the creation and development of said cuisines for millenia. Kicking them out of your countries and then accusing them of stealing your food is absurd when you stole their money, their possessions, their businesses and executed them en masse for Zionism whether they wanted to live in Israel or not. Their culture, including their cuisine, and their lives is all they had left. They aren’t the thieves, the people who expelled them are. 

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nighto0owl

it’s insane how many times I’ve encountered the claim that Jews “stole” cuisine or practices from the very countries where they lived for ages and attempted to put down roots until they were remorselessly expelled. My grandparents are Persian, Persian food, culture, practices, and language were all they KNEW until they fled to Israel on account of their own personal safety. My late grandfather’s family built a synagogue in Iran, a country where Jewish communities once thrived and contributed to the culture. For my grandparents, this culture was and continues to be a permanent fixture of their identity. No one has a right to question that.

This drives me up the wall because in case anybody forgot (which they seem to frequently), Jews have been in the middle east and like pretty much everywhere for long, long, long before Islam. But nobody bats an eye at Muslims in the middle east because of the preconceived notion that everyone in the middle east north Africa region is homogenous, or that they if they themselves are MENA are the only people there. Which is racist and oppressive as fuck.

Don’t forget that Jews have been expelled from nearly every region in the world and that Mizrahi/Sephardic Jews were nomads, meaning, they exchanged little bits and pieces of cultures from wherever they were allowed to settle. 

I’m constantly amazed by how often I’m told I’m not really Middle Eastern because my family is Jewish and that’s not “real Middle Eastern” culture. I can’t truly be Middle Eastern because, because of the Jewish diaspora, Mizrahi culture is mixed and isn’t as distinct as others are. Our identities don’t belong to us. People always feel a need to tell us what and who we are. 

yesterday i was catcallled by a man who had his two year old kid with him.

That’s so weird. So was I, except the guy was in a van full of kids.

I hope these whack ass dudes are actually out looking for babysitters because that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard of. 

Why is the president so clingy? God damn, Barack...