Yup. I try to spread the word because not only are so many people and groups hidden from the American people, but the reality of their heritages and ancestry culture are double-hidden. Folks with Gullah roots have a right to the knowledge

Smalls was fully bilingual, fluent in both English and Gullah-Geechee. His English was key to his success in advocating for himself (something he had to do throughout his entire life just to get a fraction of what he deserved) and for others. His Gullah let him formulate and share his elaborate escape plan with fellow Gullah conscripted slaves, and helped him rally a strong Gullah base of support when he ran for Congressional office during Reconstruction

I'm afraid that's all I really know, I don't have any lived experience on the matter. His mother was Lydia Smalls, according to this source that Wikipedia links to, if that helps with tracing Smalls' kin. If you end up talking to a genealogist or anything like that, lemme know if you find something interesting!

Robert Smalls is a legend. He'd be a legend if all he had done was escape slavery and his Confederate conscription. But he also delivered the vessel (the CSS Planter) to the Union, rescuing himself, his family, his crew of fellow Black conscripts, and the crew's families. And he did so at a a strategic moment, after the Confederates had just loaded several big guns and ammunition onto the vessel. They tricked the folks at Fort Sumpter, and made their way straight to the Union naval presence nearby, taking down the Confederate flag they'd been flying and putting up a white bedsheet. The Union nearly fired on them in the dark, but as they were raising the gun the sun rose to illuminate the white sheet and the Union held their fire

Smalls and much of the crew were Gullah, and I believe Smalls was one of the first (and few) Gullah statesmen in American history. Smalls did so much more for the nation too. He helped shame Philadelphia and many other big, supposedly tolerant cities to reform some of their most obscene anti-Black ordinances and policies. He provided the Union with major advantages in the war effort, including Tennessee. He was a pivotal figure in Reconstruction. He was legitimately one of the coolest people in American history, and he should be one of the most famous people in the nation. And he's only one of the many, many pivotal figures in American history of Gullah-Geechee background, yet almost no one today knows about him or Gullah-Geechee language & culture

Muhammad probably liked all animals, including dogs. His sons — who died in childhood, God give them and their father peace — had a dog, and there’s a well-known tradition (Arabic: “Hadith”) in which Muhammad related to his companions that among the people destined for heaven was a sex worker who saw a street dog in dire need of water so she went to a nearby well and scooped out some water in her shoe and gave water to the dog

It’s a low-key radical story, because there’s no mention of whether this woman was a monotheist or a polytheist, or an atheist, what she thought of Islam, or really anything about her at all. All we know is that she was kind to a creature whom the whole world had basically abandoned, and she’s going to heaven. Man, I don’t even know if I’m going to heaven, but she is. Hell of a role model, imo

Fund your local animal shelters, neuter/spay your pets, and TNR stray cats!

They generally give Hanbali opinions. This fatwa site may be popular, but its opinions often reflect only a small portion of Muslim scholarship. The Maliki school entirely disagrees with this fatwa. This is why fatawa are not universal religious decrees, because Islam is a decentralized religion that is characterized by dissent, debate, and mutual respect for each other‘s points of view. We have lost this to an extent over the last 50 years, but for well over 13 centuries this has been how we have done things. There is always enough room for one more opinion or one more argument

Actually, the Maliki position you mentioned is a minority position, though it is the majority position of the Hanafis. The Maliki majority consensus is that, so long as the dog is alive, it is pure (najasa). This is because dogs are animals, and all animals are pure when they are alive

Upon death, unless they were killed in the name of God for a clear purpose and killed in a way that minimizes pain to the greatest feasible degree, they are impure to touch (this, of course, is the basis of “zabihah”). However, transforming the remains of the animal, for instance my tanning its hide, removes its impurities. Thus, Malikis will say that pig leather is pure, but boar-bristle brushes are impure, for instance

The other Sunni schools disagree with this, and I believe the Jafaris come to somewhat similar conclusions but using a different logic. I’m afraid I’m not quite sure, though

Depends on whom you ask. I was always taught that it was because societies in the Middle East around Israel (where all of the named prophets are understood to be from) were highly patriarchal and women were not allowed by their societies to participate as equals in religious life, so it would be pretty much impossible to get those societies to change their ways and follow a woman as a religious leader

Islam also believes there were many messengers of God throughout the world other than those described in the Bible and Quran, as Islam believes God’s message to be universal. Most prophets, by some Islamic theologies, came and went without ever having been known to the peoples of the Middle East. It’s quite possible that, in societies where women were the leaders of faith, that there was a woman messenger of God. That’s purely speculative, however, and only God knows

Well, the bit about being allowed in mosques is a cultural thing more than a strictly religious thing. In the old days (like, the first days of Islam), prayer spaces were frequently visited by all sorts of animals, from cats to birds to dogs to mice to livestock. Some of the Sunni schools, especially Hanbalis, see dogs as impure so they might not like letting them in, but there’s actually a fascinating history behind the relationship between religious practice and animals in Islam

I signed up for a five-year program to get a BA in Philosophy and Poli Sci. Took seven years to get it done, collapsed under years of unresolved mental health issues, a suicide attempt, untreated ADHD, and poor habits. After I graduated, I was too beat up and afraid to finish the law school applications I had started, and let my decent 168 LSAT score gather dust. I graduated with a 2.9 GPA anyway, so not the best shot at law school anyway

Well, I built myself back up and began a new life. Now I'm taking the little bit of money I had saved up for law school and spending it on an IT degree (at a low enough price tag that I won't have to take out loans). I'm still struggling for my As and Bs, and things aren't easy right now, but I'm here. I'm gonna do what I want. I'm still walking

Nietzsche would have quite a lot to say about his being called a prophet of all things, none of them particularly flattering. Nor, now that I think of it, would he be particularly sympathetic towards the sentiments of people afraid of all-powerful super AIs

For what it's worth, my gut bacteria would likely not agree with the idea that I am the Overman and them mere Undermen. I look forward with glee to the day when my AI toils to build for me a house within its belly for me to feed on it and command it to feed ever more for me. But I will have to be careful, because humanity has let itself feed on the land far too poorly. Maybe I'll give the AI a stomachache every so often just to make sure it doesn't get out of hand

It's a nice situation for the bacteria, though, right?

If these crazy AI horror stories, dreamt up by a species whose brains have been specifically adapted for pattern recognition and finding possible things to be afraid of regardless of how rational they are, turn out to be true and there really is a monster under the bed this time, based on everything we're quite likely to end up in the enviable position of being nurtured as gut bacteria by these AI overlords

How bout the idea of a group of gut bacteria controlling a human being and using that being as a tool to serve their interests?