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house plant pngs

(please reblog if used!!)

sbi hugs for a secret santa :D

guys i volunteered to run a session on racial microaggressions in the workplace for my wider team and i wanted to define microaggressions and their various types and then provide a few examples both anecdotally and personally. what are your thoughts!!

your english is so good! (with a tone of surprise) why why why don’t say anything wtf

where are you REALLY from (after so much pestering - leave me alone!!) say “where’s home for you” and make it a casual conversation, dont harass!

“im gonna probably butcher your name” proceeds to butcher it and NOT leave space for you to correct them. ask first!!!!!

“oh you tick a lot of diversity boxes don’t cha” WHY IT IS HUMILIATING

jumping to conclusions instead of asking “so you must have studied IT” (im indian) instead of “what did you study and why”

talking in 3rd person of people/places/cultures and making offhand comments (like oh i avoid that shop its unruly when that shop is popular among black or minority communities)

touching or asking to touch someones skin or hair!!!!! 

comparing people to foodstuffs, your skin is like caramel or chocolate.

being white and tanning dark and saying “i look like a brown person now”

expecting the one POC to be a spokesperson for everyone

“youre not from here you wouldnt understand”

belittling people who work in “back offices” as not being intelligent (big companies have back offices in India, China, Hungary etc with people doing manual and repetitive work)

Some other key points I want to make:

do not put the burden on us to speak up and educate you, be mindful of your words

if you are commenting on someones behaviour or identity, think before you speak. put yourself in their shoes and think about how it would be perceived

we are not ambassadors for our cultures and definitely not for others

do not dismiss us or gaslight us, we have years of people doing that and it breaks spirits. one innocuously bad comment puts us on guard and kicks our survival instincts in.

ask! listen! be proactive in taking a step back!

speak up and recognize and use your white privilege for the better.

do not argue and get defensive when a POC speaks up about their experiences. It’s difficult to share and it’s even more difficult to change the system when you make this about yourself

pls tell me about more common workplace racial microaggressions, or just any good tips on what to include!

percy watching h2o: just add water: i sure hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me

or alternatively, purple hyacinths and white tulips

You know, the more I think about it, Aang and Toph actually do have the makings of a good couple, not just an arbitrary alternate pair that frees Katara up for Zuko.

Like think about it; the first time he sees her is in an enchanted forest (well, a swamp, but a magic spiritual swamp) and she’s all ethereal, laughing, dressed in white. He realizes it’s his destiny to someday meet her. He finally does, and she’s nothing like he expects. He pursues her, but she brushes him off. Desperate to get her attention, he challenges her to a duel. Despite her formidable skill, she has a glaring weakness that Aang is uniquely equipped to exploit and he defeats her easily. He follows her home to try and convince her it’s her destiny to be with him, and even asks for her parent’s permission. He tries to figure out why she rejects him and learns that she’s living a lie and denying her true self to appease her family. Finally, she decides to run away with him and her father gets pissed and sends some goons to rescue her from the boy who “stole her away”.

Also, Toph being an aristocrat makes her something like a princess, and a Rebellious Princess at that.

Already, they’re using way more classic romantic tropes for Aang and Toph than they ever did for Aang and Katara. But let’s dive deeper.

Aang’s whole story is about trying to find the balance between being true to himself as a human being and being what the world needs him to be, something Toph could probably relate to having spent her whole life pretending to be a proper lady and a helpless blind child to appease her parents when she really wants to be an independent outspoken tomboy and ends up accomplishing way more by embracing her true self than trying to be what others want to force her to be.

By design, as Aang’s earthbending teacher, she facilitates character growth in him by helping him overcome his difficulties bending earth, which requires a temperament opposite to his own. It was likely her influence, helping Aang become more assertive and steadfast, that played a crucial role in developing the unbendable spirit that allowed Aang to overpower Ozai and take away his bending.

Aang and Toph also have some unique qualities that make them special, but can also be isolating. Aang of course has his Avatar powers, which puts a huge burden on his shoulders, but it also allows him to see spirits and access the spirit world, while Toph’s blindness comes with some obvious disadvantages, but also allowed her to sense the world in a way others couldn’t, which helped her to pioneer new earthbending techniques such as metalbending.

Aang and Toph also have pretty good chemistry together as friends. Toph, being a tombody, likes playing in the mud and other activities that Aang is into but Katara isn’t. Toph also includes Aang in her scams while Katara doesn’t tell Aang about dressing up as the Painted Lady.

Aang and Toph also have a lot of complimentary qualities. Aang comes from a monastic order of peaceful communal living, world travel, and few material attachments, but has a strong desire to remain attached to things like pieces of his culture, his bison, his beliefs and practices, his friends, and the girl he loves while Toph comes from an aristocratic family of great wealth and restrictive formalities, which she gladly gives up to live a free and independent life, though she struggles to reconcile that with her homesickness. Aang is highly spiritual, even for an airbender, because of his status as the Avatar, while Toph is especially physical, even by earthbender standards, because of how she compensates for her blindness. Aang is pacifistic, introspective, unsure of himself, but strongly principled while Toph is aggressive, abrasive, confident, and mischievous. There’s a lot that Toph has to offer Aang besides just being an earthbending teacher and there’s a lot that Aang could offer her in turn being so different from her.

Aang and Toph being the same age also allows for their relationship to come off as more equal, which would go a long way toward making a friends to lovers romance come across as more natural and believable.

I really like the platonic friendship they had in the show just fine, but if romance is meant to play an important part in Aang’s journey, he and Toph are a much better fit for each other than Aang and Katara. If they had just cut out all the moments of Aang mooning over Katara in season 1, and moved the season 2 opener with the Earth Kingdom general who used Katara to force Aang in to the Avatar State to the tail end of the season, like right before or right after arriving in Ba Sing Se, after Aang’s had plenty of time to get to know and love Toph, nothing would be lost by making her Aang’s love-interest instead of Katara.

ok universe, i’m ready to feel good things. make me feel good things.

people who can graciously hide that they don’t like people are so terrifying. last year while working on tech for a play i asked my friend how he became friends with another guy on the crew and he got quiet, looked straight into my soul and said “he’s not my friend. i fucking hate him.” i lost 5 years of my life