#also i’m not jewish so i’m far from the best person on this site to have a discussion with about antisemitism in comics

[jerichogender]

Someone had to mention it, but yeah, the entire Court of Owls storyline is antisemitic. Like, Bruce being judged by the Court draws straight from a Passion play, complete with a little girl ordering to "make him hurt". (In this reading Batman and Jesus are "one of the good ones".) In Dark Nights: Metal, also by Snyder, the Court is also known as the Judas tribe. Most recently they used mind control, a spell often attributed to Jews by antisemites, on Dick.

It’s been a while since I read the original Court of Owls storyline from the New 52 & I never read Dark Knights: Death Metal, so I’m not familiar with some of the plot points your referencing. That being said, if everything you mentioned squares with what happens in those books, then it definitely sounds like Scott Snyder has a pattern of writing antisemitic tropes into his comic book storylines, unconsciously or not

[mournwatch]

and people said that proved they can r-move entire h-rassment posts when needed. Its not the main reason the site has issues but its why a lot of people are upset at st-ff about it all. Also I’m SO sorry about the random dashes I literally could not send the ask without them because st-ff bl-cks certain combinations of keywords from being sent in asks and this topic is one of the f-ltered ones. But yeah other than that you’re 100% right 2/2

So I heard about the case of this staff member as it was going down. If it’s not immediately obvious, I do know people who are on staff even if I myself am not. I sew costumes for a living at a corporation. As far as I understood it, what happened was someone found out that a person on staff (but *not on trust & safety*, which is the department that handles reports of harassment) was a Harry Potter fan. And then they proceeded to make a big deal out of it in a way that singled that staff member out for harassment, which is against TOS. I don’t remember seeing any specific transphobic posts from this person, just that they like Harry Potter. And that it seemed unfair that the person bringing this to people’s attention was punished, even though they really did break TOS.

Now, to be clear I think it’s in extremely poor taste to still be a fan of Harry Potter now. The author is so beyond the pale in terms of proof pointing to her bigotry. And being a member of Tumblr staff I don’t think you can even give this person the benefit of the doubt in assuming she didn’t know. She probably does. She could be anywhere from an ignorant idiot clinging to nostalgia to someone who really does hold transphobic beliefs. But ultimately as far as I understand it there wasn’t sufficient proof of her saying blatantly transphobic things, so what do you do? Would you, as a member of HR staff at a company, feel comfortable enough to potentially risk being brought to court over firing someone because they consume shitty media? It’s almost inevitable as an adult in the workplace that you’re going to have coworkers that have harmful political stances. My best friend worked with an antivax flat-earther. But if they don’t talk about it at work, there’s not a lot that most companies would do about that. It’s annoying and unpleasant but the same laws that protect someone like me, a trans gay Jewish AnSoc, also are protecting them. But anyway, since this person wasn’t actually on trust & safety, it isn’t within her power actually to make decisions over how transphobic harassment gets handled.

Further, it’s weird to then treat staff as if they’re a transphobic monolith when most people don’t even interact with each other directly. This company is almost entirely comprised of remote workers. They’re not like, hanging out around the water cooler pitying this person for liking Harry Potter. By far the most annoying result from their perspective has been this game of telephone that started at “there’s a staff member who has interests that are distressing” to “the company is sheltering a secret hive of TERFs.” When meanwhile the people I know who are affiliated with Tumblr are as far from that ideology as you can be. And they mostly are not going to be outspoken about this issue at all because it is pretty uncomfortable to get in direct fights with the userbase when it really only will result in not letting this matter ever die if they did and wouldn’t help clarify anything.

Most people who are invested in this come off as very young to me and without the experience of how working at a company like this is. They don’t know how difficult it is to be bound to a enforcing a set of rules that can both be used against bigots and people who mean well but still break those rules. I’m nearly thirty. I really feel sorry for the people who feel like they’ve been treated unfairly, but I think what they’re looking for doesn’t exist. You can’t even get people to all behave in a leftist discord server. And as you can see in the other conversation I’m having, people constantly underestimate the labor it takes to keep social media safe. I could grumpily tell people to grow up and touch grass but that doesn’t do any good either. All I can do is simply plead for people to think it through better.

[happygardenerparadise]

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Zoosk operates in over 80 nations. The site is very inclusive, with over 20 gender and sexual orientation choices. Geared towards educated professionals, this dating site uses a top-notch personality survey developed by psychologists to match you with the best potential mates. August 2018: The pair walk the 2018 MTV VMAs red carpet together, where Rodriguez proves that he's the best Instagram boyfriend when he's caught snapping pics of Lopez. Rodriguez says in the cover story. By the mid-’80s you have ‘Mazel Dating for Jewish Singles,’ or ‘Soul Date a Mate,’ which is this LA-based one for African-Americans,” says Weigel. The Isaiah scroll was included in the testing and was found to have two possible date ranges at a 2σ confidence level, because of the shape of the calibration curve at that point: there is a 15% chance that it dates from 355 to 295 BC, and an 84% chance that it dates from 210 to 45 BC.

She found his LinkedIn profile - it was short, with just a few connections. Based on the list above, there are many types of relationships to be found on these sites. Some types of dating work better in some rocks; others are better in other rocks, depending on the rock composition and its age. Thermoluminescence: Useful for determining the age of pottery or ceramics, it can be used to date materials containing crystalline minerals to a specific heating event in the past (such as when the item was made). To provide an extra layer of protection, request that they call or text during the date to ensure maximum safety. Certain websites also scan participants manually, adding an extra layer of security to the process. Then, just hours after his interview, Lopez and Rodriguez are spotted in public together for the first time. It is also smart to arrange a first date in a public space. The couple also take their first trip to Paris together. Animals and people eat plants and take in carbon-14 as well. Plenty of Fish - This dating website is Canadian-based, but allows users to communicate with people from all around the world.

Each day, these users submit more than 3 million messages in 25 different languages. We set out to change the landscape of dating for good­-to transform a traditionally frustrating experience into a positive one-and to bring more love into the world. Other social media users remarked that the signs were there, with many pointing out that Kim and Pete were dressed alike in a photo from his recent birthday party. It is not connected to social media accounts for this reason. In February 2021, Dispatch, a South Korean media outlet, reported that Jennie and BIGBANG’s G-Dragon had been dating for a year. But definitely another mark in my career I didn’t see coming.” Booker also made a cameo in Drake’s “Chicago Freestyle” music video earlier this year. Meanwhile, on March 14, J.Lo included headlines about their supposed breakup in a new TikTok video. J.Lo writes on her post. It's unclear when the pair decided to go from friends to something more but fans are living for the developments. “We have realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so,” they said. When it comes to BTS, there are various rumours about the guys having girlfriends or being in relationships as the K-pop stars' private lives are kept exactly that.

[writingwithcolor]

Gingerbread man as golem

@yaronata asked:

I would like to write a character who is Jewish and uses a Golem. She's based on the D&D class of the artificer which looks magic but isn't, because they produce all their effects with inventions, like the "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" quote. Her story is that her very Jewish town was under attack from a terrible monster when she was little. Her Rabbis made a Golem to protect the town, and it succeeded but was torn to pieces in the process. She was fascinated by the Golem and as a kid didn't see a big difference between it's sentience and person's so was really thankful for its sacrifice like you would a person's sacrificing their life for you. They thought all the pieces had been devoured by the monster before it died, but she went looking and found the piece used to animate the Golem, which she, kinda misunderstanding called its "heart". She kept the piece and grew up to be an incredibly skilled cook, specialising as a baker in the town. I imagine she would make a lot of really good food for the Jewish holidays, or to break fasts on ones like Yom Kippur or Tish'abav. But she also made a town specific holiday to honour the Golem's sacrifice and the town still being alive, because I feel "we are not dead woo" is a big theme for Jewish holidays from my research, so it could fit, for which she invented ginger bread men to be the golem, and gave them little "hearts" of fruit or honey, and you're meant to eat them limb by limb like the beast did before eating the heart. This would be the inspiration for using the "heart" piece later to make her own giant gingerbread Golem to help her save the world.

These are my questions 1) would it be considered bad or disrespectful for someone who isn't a Rabbi to make a Golem, or is this method of taking an animating piece someone else made disrespectful? 2) Her journey will take her far from her town and her Jewish family and friends and she will likely travel with gentiles. Would it be disrespectful for a Golem to be used to protect a lot of gentiles and one Jew in the course of saving the world? I don't want to fall into the stereotype of someone putting all their effort into valuing and protecting very specifically the group that in real life is oppressive to them. 3) While she is not using magic and is actually mimicking its effects with technology she invents, is this drawing too close to the line of "magical Jew"? 4) I like to "play test" my characters in ttrpgs to really get a feel for them before I write. Would it be disrespectful to play a Jewish character when I am a gentile, and would it be disrespectful to play a Jewish character in a setting where there are demonstrably real gods other than the one of Judaism?

I really like this character idea and I think it's cute and fun and rooted in Jewish culture but I really want to make sure it's respectful and as good as I, a gentile researching on the internet, thinks it is. Thanks so much! Have a nice day!

My answer to this is very complicated because there are things I both like and do not like about this premise. First of all, I love the idea of a cookie golem, and I'm even imagining the magic word that brings him to life (EMET/truth) would be written in icing. And I'm okay with the part about how she found a piece of the old golem and used it to build a new golem, because that makes sense for a golem made from a baked good when you think about how people use sourdough starter to make a new batch of sourdough.

However, here are the thing that make me cock my head to the side like my little sister's German shepherd:

1. re: "magical Jew" - that's not a trope I've ever heard of. Remember, marginalized groups don't receive identical disrespect across the board. It is indeed a trope to use Black people or disabled people as supernatural plot devices who exist only to further the stories of white main characters or able-bodied main characters. But I can't say as I've ever seen anyone using Jewishness that way. Usually if we are someone's one-dimensional plot device it's as someone's lawyer, fixer, "money guy", etc, not a supernatural force. So this isn't something you have to worry about.

2. I have a certain level of discomfort with you playing as a Jewish character just because playacting as a marginalized culture you're not part of strikes me as off, but I understand that that's how you gain insight into a character you're about to write so it's more of a writing exercise than anything else. (I wonder if D&D regulars from marginalized groups have written about this -- I've only played a few times casually with family so if I did run into this type of discussion in my social justice reading I wouldn't have absorbed it. If anyone is curious I played first as Captain Werewolf, and then switched to playing as Cinnamon Blade because lawful good was too hard. :P )

3. I would prefer you omit the detail about eating the cookies piece by piece symbolically, for two reasons: a. it unintentionally evokes Communion by having appreciative people consume a baked good symbolic of an entity who sacrificed his life for theirs, and b. focusing on the details of flesh consumption reminds me too much of Blood Libel (yes, a gingerbread man is in the shape of a person but how many of us actually think about it literally, the way this act would cause?)

As to your first question: I'm fine with her making a golem even though she's just a rando. Second question: I see what you're saying and maybe it could be more okay if it's really clear how well these gentile folks are treating her? And questions three and four are answered above.

I really do love the idea of a giant gingerbread man golem. Cookie golem T_T <3

--Shira

I would like to second Shira’s point about not ripping apart the gingerbread cookies. I honestly would prefer they were used as decoration, and other cookies eaten instead, since that part just feels so not-Jewish to me, but I don’t have golem-specific issues other than that. It seems like you have already been doing a lot of research, which is appreciated.

As far as the ttrpg/DnD aspect… I bounce back and forth on the topic of playing characters that are so very different from our experiences, other than in fantasy-related ways. However, I am aware that a lot of people will play with, and experiment with gender in game, and learn something about themselves in the process (the number of trans players of ttrpgs who tried out their gender in game before they were out is high). It’s different with Judaism, and even more significantly different when it comes to things you can’t convert into, like various actual, real-world races. But because people do sometimes experience growth from experiences like this, I’m hesitant to dissuade players completely. I do urge you to, at a minimum, bring the same care, research, and willingness to learn, that you brought to this question.

--Dierdra

This sounds like a creative storyline that you could have lots of fun with 😊

At first I was confused by this part:

She also made a town specific holiday to honour the Golem's sacrifice

But then you really got me thinking about different types of Jewish holidays and how they come about, so thank you for that!

Because it’s often the little details that either make a story super powerful or kind of nonsensical, I think it would be a good idea to decide what type of holiday is being created here:

A full-blown chag with restrictions on labour and halachic obligations? These are commanded in Torah and new ones can’t be added.

A minor yom tov with halachic obligations but no restrictions? These were instituted by the rabbis prior to the destruction of the Temple, so again new ones can’t be added.

A public holiday or equivalent? This would usually be declared by the Knesset in Israel, and filter to the rest of the Jewish world from there.

A community-based yom tov with specific customs only for people in the know, such as certain Chasidic groups celebrating the birthdays of their deceased leaders? I asked around, but no one can really tell me how these holidays get started, which is probably a good indication that they arise quite organically from a group of people who all just feel that it should be celebrated. Probably not created by a single person, as such.

Something she runs from her bakery, not religion-based, but more like a day of doing special products and deals the way many small businesses do on their anniversary?

Now, if the people of a modern-day town were actually saved by a real live Golem, that would arguably be the most overt miracle for many generations, so there would be a decent chance of options 3 and/or 4 happening. It’s entirely plausible that there could be special foods for this day that become a tradition, including Golem cookies. People who directly benefited might also return to the site where the Golem fought the monster and recite the prayer, ‘Blessed is Hashem, Master of the Universe, Who performed a miracle for me in this place.’

Alternatively, if it’s important that your MC created the holiday, something like option 5 might be the best. Hopefully this will still fulfil what you need: you describe her as incredibly skilled, so I can imagine the day when she goes all out on the Golem cookies being one of the most exciting events of the year for the townspeople, just because her baking is that good. Plus, they already have a personal stake in the Golem’s sacrifice, so I definitely think it could be a thing without being an official holiday. Also, if she is outside of an all-Jewish environment, don’t forget that she would have to decide whether to commemorate the anniversary in the Hebrew calendar or the local one.

Coming back to the cookies, sorry if we’re getting a little repetitive on this point! But I don’t see the cookies being torn limb from limb as part of a celebration. First of all, this doesn’t sound like a very celebratory thing to do, to say the least. Can you imagine explaining that to a three-year-old on their first Yom HaGolem? They would be terrified! (I don’t read this suggestion as accidental anti-Semitism so much as getting carried away with a metaphor, which I’m sure as writers we have all done!)

But also, it’s worth pointing out that our commemorative foods aren’t usually that literal. If you think about hamantaschen, maror, or apple in honey, they’re all symbols. That’s not to say that having Golem-shaped cookies is a problem, as this sounds like just a bit of fun that the MC is having and not something that is directly at odds with Judaism or Jewish culture. But it’s worth bearing in mind that the more literal you go from there in terms of tying the cookies to the event they commemorate, the less culturally aligned your holiday food becomes.

Finally, about the Golem protecting non-Jewish people: I like this idea! There’s a stereotype that we only use whatever is at our disposal to help ourselves and other Jewish people, so a Golem being created by Jews but helping others as well is a big plus for me. Of course, as has already been pointed out, this would be an odd choice if her Saving The World team were anti-Semitic or otherwise disrespectful to her/her community, but I don’t think you were headed that way!

-Shoshi

I have to come back in here just to squee over the phrase “Yom HaGolem.” Well done :D

--Shira

[nevermindirah]

Non-Jewish friends, y’all might be wondering right now: Israel is doing clearly unacceptable shit to Palestinians. So, why are some Jews ardent Zionists, and why do some Jews seem to feel personally attacked by criticism of Israel?

A lot of (non-Palestinian) non-Jews have asked me where I stand on Israel/Palestine over the years, apropos of nothing, just because I’m Jewish. For the longest time I felt so stuck because I just didn’t know much about Israel/Palestine and what little I did know turned out to be largely misinformation and I felt so much pressure to say The Correct Thing That All Jews Should Say About This Issue. Obviously the violence Israel is committing against Palestinians is horrific and the interpersonal weirdness individual Jews might experience as people discuss Israel’s horrific violence doesn’t compare. I’m making this post as a small supplement to the important conversations going on about what Israel is doing to Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, as well as Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinian refugees and their descendants living outside land Israel controls. I’m making this post because non-Jews might be feeling confused by conflicting messages about Zionism as either settler colonialism or Jewish self-determination. It sucks feeling like you have to choose only one oppressed group or another. It’s possible to support Palestinian liberation and Jewish liberation at the same time! Here’s some context that might help.

Palestinian friends will probably want to ignore this post, y’all shouldn’t have to deal with your oppressors’ feelings, and especially not right now.

Zionism is the ideology behind the devastating violence Israel is committing against Palestinians right now and has been committing against Palestinians since 1947-48. It’s heartbreaking and messy to talk about this reality, because Zionism originated as a strategy to protect Jews from antisemitism.

Any oppressed group can turn into oppressors under enough pressure, because humans are flawed. Jews fleeing antisemitism turning into Israelis ethnically cleansing Palestinians happened because Zionism is profoundly influenced by its time and place of origin: 19th century Europe.

Europe invented antisemitism, and basically every European country has done at least one very very bad structural antisemitism, like expelling all the country's Jews (the monarch and/or the church then stole all the wealth the expelled people had to leave behind), looking the other way when peasants murdered a bunch of Jews as an outlet for their frustration with the actual (non-Jewish) ruling class, banning Jews from owning property or holding certain jobs or being members of guilds etc, and of course the big horrific state-sponsored mass-murder operations the Inquisition and the Holocaust. From the 1790s through the 19th century different European governments emancipated their Jews, ie removed legal barriers to full citizenship and economic participation. But this didn't end antisemitism. Just like the legal improvements of the 19th and 20th centuries didn't end antiblackness in the United States.

Also happening in this time: nationalism swept Europe. From the French Revolution through the end of World War I, Europe’s predominant form of government transformed from multiethnic empires to nation-states, countries led by and for a particular ethnic group.

So this Austro-Hungarian dude Theodor Herzl came up with this idea for Jewish nationalism. Every other European ethnic group is getting their own country, so why not Jews? Maybe this is the solution to antisemitism! Maybe we’ll finally be safe if we just all move en masse out of Europe to a place that will take all of us and never expel us!

But also also happening in Europe and around the world in this time: European imperialism and white supremacist settler colonialism. Chattel slavery saw its height and then its end (legally, at least) during this era, but white supremacy entrenched itself across the planet in post-slavery economic practices and cultural imperialism as well as national and international laws.

I believe countries have a moral obligation to take in as many refugees as they can squeeze in. International law protecting refugees has evolved a lot over the past century, but we’re still devastatingly far from every refugee getting a safe place to call home, and the main reason for that is white supremacy. The Biden administration didn’t undo the Trump administration’s horrifically low cap on refugees until like last week and it’s because Democratic party leaders treat centrist white people as more valuable voters than the huge and growing numbers of people of color, immigrants, LGBT people, unmarried women, and working class people who want to vote for elected leaders who get that nobody’s free until we’re all free. Ahem. Back to the topic at hand, the US and many other countries turned away untold numbers of refugees fleeing the fucking Holocaust, so odds are slim they’d be more welcoming in less desperate times. Moving from places where Jews are an unwanted minority to places where Jews are still a minority and either still unwanted or little understood and unlikely to win revolutionary levels of support from a largely non-Jewish public seems like a bad plan.

In the mid to late 19th century, lots of Jews took the kernel of Zionism and ran with it in different directions. Maybe this ideology could mean Jewish cultural flourishing alongside stronger political/economic integration into the societies where we’re already living! Maybe it could mean a particular kind of socialism that advocates for the liberation of Jews both as Jews and as workers! Maybe it could mean a revitalization of Jewish religious practice both in Jerusalem where we have important heritage sites and everywhere we live across the world!

Eventually Herzl’s vision of Zionism won out over the others: Jewish nationalism in the sense of a Jewish nation-state, a country that has a Jewish demographic majority and/or that legally privileges Jews over non-Jews.

Problem is, if you want to do that, you have to find a piece of land on which to do it, and Earth was already a pretty crowded place a hundred years ago. Many locations were considered, and the one that ended up winning that debate was Palestine. Where a shit ton of people, mostly non-Jews, were already living. They were forming their own nationalist movement at the time: in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire they began to organize for local self-determination in Palestine.

The Herzl types who developed Zionism as an ideology and built institutions to advocate for and create a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine were a small subset of European Jews, mostly men, mostly with significant economic privilege within what Jews were able to achieve in their particular societies at the time. They were just as Orientalist as the non-Jews around them, just as antiblack, just as racist generally for all that Jews were (and sometimes still are) considered non-white in much of Europe. They had a cool idea (put a lot of effort into something that could protect Jews from antisemitism) floating in a bathtub full of shit, and they did practically nothing to protect the cool idea from absorbing that shit. Results of this include thinking about the millions of people already living in Palestine as if they were either like the rocks and the trees that will go with the flow and accept a new ruling class, or indistinct Arabs who would just leave for other Arab countries because what could be the difference — in the staggeringly small amount of time they considered the existing residents of Palestine at all.

This racist hand-waving extended to Zionist leaders’ attitudes about Jews outside Europe as well. White Jews in settler colonies like the US were largely anti-Zionist at the time (not wanting their own countries to accuse them of dual loyalty was a common reason) but European Zionist leaders took what help they could get from Jews in the US, South Africa, Australia, etc. Jews across the Middle East and North Africa, however, barely heard from Zionist leaders about any of this until Zionist militias had removed enough Palestinians from the land and it was time to repopulate it with whichever Jewish bodies were convenient. You might have heard "all the Arab countries expelled their Jews in 1948" but lots of first-person accounts tell a different story of Israel coercing Jews who’d lived securely for a long time in places like Morocco to immigrate to Israel and then confiscating their passports and forcing them to live on less-fertile land with fewer resources while serving as a buffer between Palestinians and European Jewish immigrants. Ella Shohat is the best-known writer on Israeli racism against non-European Jews and I strongly recommend Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Perspective of Its Jewish Victims as a starting point to learn more about this.

Which brings us to today. We still haven’t eradicated antisemitism, several European governments that did a lot of structural antisemitism they still haven’t made meaningful reparations for get to feel good about themselves for “giving the Jews a state” as if carving up the former Ottoman Empire was up to them and not the people who lived there, and millions of people across the world who previously either lived peacefully enough alongside Jews or hadn’t really thought about us much at all now have very valid reasons to be pissed at this country that claims it represents all of us.

Zionism was supposed to protect Jews from antisemitism. And Israel has saved Jewish lives! But if we hadn’t sunk the past 70+ years into an ethnostate we could’ve been putting that energy into other political and economic activity to create adequate international support for refugees while we work on ending root causes of refugee crises, like antisemitism, racism, climate change, and capitalism. Meanwhile Zionism has killed, maimed, incarcerated, stolen from, traumatized, and erased the history of millions of Palestinians just because they happened to be living on land that some dudes who had a lot more in common with Thomas Jefferson and Donald Trump than with you or me decided needed to be cleansed for a Jewish ethnostate.

White nationalists in the US love Israel because they want American Jews to go away. Fascist leaders across Europe love Israel for the same reason, so much so that Israel’s prime minister is buddy-buddy with Trump and the equivalent shitstains of several European far-right parties. And I don’t know what it’s like in other white supremacist countries that are close allies of Israel, but the overwhelming majority of Zionist lobbying that pushes the US to give so much aid to Israel comes from Evangelical Christians, because they believe all the Jews have to be in the Holy Land for Jesus to come back. No thanks.

This whole thing fucking sucks. Jews and Palestinians, like all human beings, deserve to be free. Many Jews are understandably afraid of what might happen next if Israel decided to give up on ethnonationalism, allow Palestinian refugees to return, make reparations, and establish a pluralistic democracy that represents and protects all its residents — will some Palestinians murder Jews in revenge? That’s genuinely fucking scary. And it’s genuinely fucking scary to be a Palestinian in Israel/Palestine, and has been for over 70 years. We’ve gotta do something different. I say that as a white person sitting on land stolen from Piscataway people who has thought in detail about what portion of my income would be reasonable for my government to tax in order to fund reparations for the descendants of enslaved people.

Ok. One final piece of context before I wrap this up.

Most Jewish institutions in the US are explicitly Zionist, teach children that Zionism is THE way to ensure Jewish safety, and increasingly tell non-Zionist Jews that we're unwelcome or even that we’re not “real” Jews. This comes in a context where it’s only been 76 years since the latest and most gruesome of several attempts to wipe our entire people off the face of the planet. If you grew up in that environment, you, too, might be jumpy about even hearing the words Zionism or Israel, let alone considering the devastation this ideology and country have caused Palestinians.

Jews have a right to exist. Jews have a millennia-old connection to this scrap of land in the Levant, and we have a right to access religiously and culturally important geographic landmarks. What we don't have a right to is murdering or expelling other people in order to make an ethnostate, on that land or any other. Zionism is settler colonialism, but it’s settler colonialism by and for people who have a valid need for protection from structural antisemitism, which means that it’s going to take a lot of messy empathy to undo. The members of my extended family who voted for Trump (non-Jews in my case, though Jared Kushner isn’t the only Jewish Trumpite) are afraid that ending white supremacy will demote them from a privileged class to equal footing with everyone else — that’s the kind of fear individuals work on in therapy, not the kind that’s reasonable for a whole society to prevent from happening. I and millions of Jews do deserve for whole societies to work hard to end antisemitism.

I would never and will never ask a Palestinian to gently request their liberation. But if you’re not Palestinian, and you’ve got a little extra empathy to spare this week, I ask you to remember what I’ve shared here when interacting with Jews about Israel/Palestine.

If you’re a fellow Jew reading this and you feel like Israel is the only way to guarantee our safety, all I ask of you is to sit with the idea that what Israel is doing to Palestinians is too high a cost for safety that’s still not guaranteed, and start to imagine real-world ways we can protect our people from antisemitism without an ethnostate.

I made this post for people who know me (or know of me I guess?) in Old Guard and Cap fandom, despite my better judgment, because talking about Jewish Booker and Jewish Bucky and Jewish Natasha makes me so happy and I think some of the people I love on these characters with might appreciate this perspective. I didn’t provide any links in this post on purpose (to decrease its usefulness, so fewer people will reblog it) because the risk of anon hate when talking about Zionism outside my immediate fandom circles is so high. You’re welcome to reblog this post if you find it helpful! Unless you’re not within a few concentric circles of me, in which case, maybe don’t? If seeing this post makes you want to send me anon hate, no need: many people who share your perspective have already done so on Twitter.

Reliable sources on all this info are a few googles away, and I apologize for the things I know I oversimplified as well as any things I might have misremembered. I’m an American who’s never lived in Israel/Palestine who is posting this on my fandom blog.

TL;DR: This is a short ‘n pithy post about the same idea.

TL;DR, fandom edition: The shortest distillation of this anti-Zionist Jew’s feelings on the matter can be found in segment 4 of Five Times Booker Got Wasted on Purim and One Time He Didn’t.

[aviya932]

I’ve been thinking whether to write it or not. On one hand this is super important, on the other hand people don’t really care and I’ll probably get hate for it. But this has to be said and I’m gonna do it. This is really long but if you really want to understand what is happening in Israel right now- this is it

I live in Israel, and for the last 48 hours we have been under rapid missile attack. Hamas, which is a terror organization, have been shooting constantly at civilian cities and houses, while at the same time there have been various riots in mixed cities- by which i mean cities that have both Jewish and Islamic population- that in normal days live in co-existence. You have to understand a couple things right now before you come at me:

I don’t talk about high tension cities such as Jerusalem. This is Lod, Ramle, Jaffa and Haifa among others. Those are cities that truly are peaceful 90% of the time and I will talk about Jerusalem and Gaza so just stick with me.

THIS IS NOT A POST ABOUT WHOSE LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT OR VALUABLE!! Living in Gaza sucks under normal circumstances but living in Sderot is not much better. There is no competition on misery and trust me as a person that actually live in Israel and knows what it’s like here on the day to day that we are well aware on how it’s like in Gaza.

this site REALLY likes to talk about experiences and how when you live through a unique event no one can talk for you about that because they don’t really know what its like. so right here right now it is my experience. You are welcome to ask follow up questions, you may send me a message to learn more or to disagree with a certain point. But if you don’t live here, even if you are from a neighbor country, then you don’t know what’s it like and i wish to god you will never know.

I don’t have all the articles right here with me, because most of the are in Hebrew and I’m writing this really quickly. So if there is interest I’ll give references and I’m really sorry for any typos here. 

Here is a brief timeline of Monday, April 10. I’ll try to stick to as many events without being partial, and for contest there have been two major events on that day:

It is still Ramadan- which means that religious Muslims were on temple mount.

It was also Jerusalem day- which I have no idea how to translate but  celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people and the old city from the Jordan army, and is an Israeli holiday in which it is custom to go to Jerusalem so there were a lot of Jewish people at the Kotel.

There’s a neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem called Sheikh Jarrah, in which there is an ongoing legal fight over ownership and governance. On April 10 there wad supposed to be a sitting in court about evicting Arab familiars. It was decided to postpone because of the tension but there has been many rallys over the topic.

During the Ramadan there has been a lot of tension, so the Israeli police have declared that no Jewish person will get on temple mount at that day. it made people mad, since it is a sacred location for us as well, and some groups have threatened to climb anyway. As far as I know no Jew have managed to get there, since things escalated quickly. Like i said, this month was very tensed, and when the cops hears that the Muslims in Al-Aqsa Mosque were hoarding stones they have decided to go inside. this was at about 08:30-09:00 AM. Since the mosque is right above the kotel this was very worrying but during the chaos there have been injuries- 21 cops and dozens of Palestinians. Stun grenades and stones.   Hamas have given an ultimatum- either the cops get off the mountain by 18:00 or they shoot rockets at Jerusalem, which at the time is filled with as much Muslims as Jews. During the day there have been terror attacks against Jews that came to the city for celebrations and for the flag parade that was planned to start at 16:00 and to end at the kotel. there was a lynch against 3 Jews at sha’ar ha’ariot (lion gate. a lynch that was depicted by the media as the drivers’ fault and as a running over. the truth is that the driver tried to escape the stoning, hit a cement half wall and continued to be hit until a cop came to his rescue) and a 7 month old girl was hit at the head by stones.

by 18:00 Hamas fired 3 barrages toward Jerusalem. And this is the part when i can tell you first-hand. because I was there, because I could not believe that they will shoot at their own people. There were SO MANY PEOPLE at the time from BOTH SIDES. this is a precedent- until then every single shooting was aimed at Jewish city and never at Muslims.

HAMAS SHOOT AT CIVILIANS IN JERUSALEM, A CITY THAT IS CONSIDERS HOLY FOR EVERYONE, DURING THEIR OWN HOLIDAY. THEY SHOT MISSILES AT A CITY IN WHICH MUSLIM ARABS LIVE. THEY SHOT BECAUSE THE POLICE WERE TRYING TO STOP MUSLIMS FROM THROWING ROCKS AT JEWISH PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T EVEN TRY TO GET ON TEMPLE MOUNT. AND YOU KNOW WHAT THE WORST THING IS? THE FACT THAT INTERNATIONAL NEWS IMMEDIATELY STARTED BLAMING THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AND POLICE AND COMPLETELY REMOVED ANY RESPONSIBILITY FROM HAMAS AND THE GOVERNMENT IN GAZA. It’s so so easy to blame Israel because Israel is more organized, because our government, while being mostly useless in the last year since we had 5 elections, is built by the peoples’ choice and not by fear, because Gaza is an underdog and we feel for the underdog- and for good reasons. Do not think for a moment that we don’t feel sorry for the people in Gaza. They live under a terrible government that cares more for the Palestinian agenda than their civilians, most Shekels that the Israeli government is transferring won’t reach the people and instead will be taken by Hamas to build bombs, guns, and tunnels. Hamas needs the people to stay underdogs. They will use them as human shields for as long as it gets them sympathy, they will take every opportunity they have to blame Israel and the media is giving them exactly what they want every single time- even Israeli media will twist facts and stories to sound more progressive and ‘woke’ and politically correct. so here are facts for all of you

while it makes me sound like a five year old it’s still true that this time Hamas shot first and unsolicited.

every country that has missiles shot at will, and has the right, to defend itself.

is it okay for civilian casualty? NO. Absolutely no. But don’t any of you dare to use that as a reason for Israeli cruelty. Hamas have sot over 1,000 rockets in the last 48 hours. IDF has attacked about a 150 locations. Hamas is shooting wildly at cities and homes without care who they hit. IDF is targeting senior Hamas figures only. Hamas is shooting from homes and streets. every IDF base that has weapons in will be located outside of civilian location.

IDF is using the “Roof knocking“ technique, and has been using for years. for those who don’t know it- IAF is dropping a non-explosive bomb- a smoke bomb that makes some noise- on top of any location they will hit to inform every single person inside that they need to get out. Only after a few minutes’ waiting will they hit for real. When Hamas is telling us when they will shoot it’s nothing like that. They don’t warn-they threat.

6 Israeli people have died so far. 2 of them were Muslim Arab-Israeli. They do not care who they hit.

the people in mixed cities have been rioting nearly nonstop for 48 hours now while attacking their neighbors, while burning synagogues, cars, homes and restaurants. One of my best friends lives in Lod. they have curfew from 20:00 today until 04:00 tomorrow. Her situations terrifies me more than any bomb because those are people who lived there for years.

not every Muslim and Arab is to blame, and blaming everyone is wrong. BUT ignoring what is happening right now is naive. Do not be blind and do not believe every single thing the media tells you. There are countless videos were Arabs fake death. where they dress as soldiers to fake scenes, where they openly teach their children hate and where their leaders openly lie on live television and get caught.

most of the time people lie because they really believe it, but that only serves the disinformation. Sometimes good intentions only cause more pain and hate.

Israel is not without blame. no one is without blame because life is not a book- there are no 100% good people and a 100% bad people. Life is complicated and so are people and political situations. You have to criticize your sources, and if they paint one side as good and one as bad then you should stop reading them. there are Israeli extremists as well, and far-right movements scare me as much as any Arab riots but no one is working in a vacuum.

the numbers are very different for many reasons. The death and casualties in Gaza is larger for many reasons, but I’ll focus on the most important ones. first, the IDF is more organized and so their bombs are stronger and more advanced. Second, Hamas is intentionally stationed in neighborhoods, schools and hospitals for human shields. third, Israel is using everything they can to protect its’ citizens and pays fortune on Iron Domes. Hamas does nothing to protect the people, and they have the money for that if they wanted since the receive money from Israel, the UN, and various different NGOs. If you don’t bother to protect your own how can you blame others? when people in Israel get hurt because they don’t have shelter they blame our own government.

right now everything here is a mess, and people from outside do not help when they only spread rumors and hate. You don’t live here? you have no clue what is happening. pray for all of us, but first educate your self and read more than one source of news for god sake. If you want the full picture you must read right-side news AND left-side news. Try to understand what is true, try to understand what is an exaggeration, try to understand what both sides are experiencing and don’t just assume that you are the smartest, most educated person just because you support the ‘right’ side. There is no right side. Only A side. So try to stand with us. Stand with Israel and have as much compassion for us as you have for Gaza. We are heading toward a civil war that will not hurt only one side, we have been living like that for years so trust me when i tell you that everyone is tired of how things are. We want peace but we don’t really see it happening anytime soon.

and for the love of god, don’t just send hate. I care about opinions, i want to think about stuff that i haven’t mentioned and to learn from others. Hate comments will not help either of us and will only keep us where we are now, and you trying to hurt me will honestly achieve nothing and will be kinda boring. Sorry for being so blunt but it’s the truth.

[saltybiowarefantears]

Hey, I have a weird question. Okay, so basically I have followed you for a while and I am aware you're Jewish, anyways I'm not but my dad is and he recently got sick with the big C and I was wondering if you had any suggestions for Jewish comfort foods I could make him? Does that make sense? Also, sorry if this is too personal or whatever feel free to ignore. Anyways have a great day! Or night!

Hi, nonnie! Really, really sorry to hear about your dad. Hopefully it’s not too serious of a case? 

Ok so here’s the deal with this. I’m kind of Fake Jew™, as in grew up with some holidays and cultural impact from my dad and grandpa, but my mother never allowed too much connection to it. So all of this stuff recently is me reconnecting culturally. Just so you are aware of the authenticity of it and I am far and beyond not an expert.

But! If your dad is of the Eastern European/Ashkenazi flavor, I can help with some suggestions and a recipe website I like! The far and away classic is matzo ball soup. It’s Jewish chicken noodle soup. You can find a soup mix for it in almost any “ethnic” grocery aisle in the United States. Usually on offer is Manischewitz. You can also make it from scratch pretty easily depending on your preference and time you have to make the food. (recipe)

My next suggestion for a more full meal is oven baked brisket. There’s just something about it that sticks to your bones. Be careful when hunting for a recipe you specify “jewish” or else you’ll be flooded with Texas barbeque. This is the recipe I modify. She has a few other varieties on her site too if this one doesn’t look as appealing.

The other two I suggest are matzo brei and lox and bagels. These are more because I associate them with comfort food. Dad and Grandpa would make these for me sometimes for breakfast. Everyone makes matzo brei a bit differently, so I’m sorry I don’t have a good recipe link. It’s just soaked matzo coated in egg and cooked. If you want more specifics on how I make that one, let me know and I’ll send you that. And bagels and lox is literally tasty bagel, add cream cheese and smoked salmon. If you feel so inclined, add red onions or capers to it.

If anyone else has any good suggestions, please don’t hesitate to add! I know this list is far from comprehensive. There’s a bunch of desserts and breads that I never had growing up that I know are some staples, but I’m not as familiar with them.

I hope this helps some nonnie and best wishes for your dad to recover. 

[reconditarmonia]

Dear Fandom 5K Author

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3. I have anon messaging off, but mods can contact me with any questions.

Dragon Age | Fullmetal Alchemist | The Locked Tomb | Motherland: Fort Salem | Where the Sky is Silver and the Earth is Brass

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; infidelity; unrequested polyamory; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships; unrequested trans versions of characters.

Smut Likes: clothing, uniforms, sexual tension, breasts, manual sex, cunnilingus, grinding, informal d/s elements, intensity.

—

Fandom: Dragon Age

Character(s):

Group: Cassandra Pentaghast/Female Lavellan

Female Lavellan

Group: Charter & Rector

Genre(s):

Canon-Style Plot - Freeform

Action/Adventure

Worldbuilding

Established Relationship

Mystery/Procedural

I'm playing this game for the first time and loving Cassandra and Lavellan together so much. (I'm playing with a mod where I can romance her with a female PC!) Lavellan starts off as this confused and small and non-Andrastian prisoner who disagrees with Cassandra on so many things, but Cassandra puts so much trust and faith in her and so much on the line for her - even with Lavellans who are adamant that they're not chosen, they're just doing their best and they happen to be the ones in the position to make this choice. Cassandra is so proud to know her, and backs her up even when she disagrees with Lavellan's choices! The romance scene is really cute between two characters who are adults and have a day-to-day working relationship that isn't going to change, but are still just having fun with how charming it is in a way that builds on their friendship. Not to mention their battling together, of course - the ways they can protect each other and fight for each other's goals (and give Cassandra all the elven swords and shields), how worried they sound if the other one gets hurt...whoops, I found myself another loyalty kink ship.

I also just like playing as Lavellan generally, with how much of an outsider she feels (the "Dawn Will Come" scene is so alienating! it really works!) and how much of the game is about visiting the sites of past elven trauma and/or glory days.

My Lavellan uses the (default lol) name of Ellana, is a rift mage, sports a lovely buzzcut and vallaslin, has a lot of feelings about elf history (and visiting the Plains/Graves especially), believes in elven gods and doesn't care to pretend she's Andrastian, and besides Cass is closest friends with Solas, but don't feel that you have to write my specific PC - I'm excited to read about yours too!

But! I also love all the little hints about the work that Leliana's agents are doing, and their friendship (walking in on their card game at Caer Bronach is kind of delightful), and the letter from Rector's mother asking why he uses a code name for work (why are you ashamed of your name, Wilbur??) is one of my favorite in-universe documents. Slice-of-life or slice-of-mission with Charter and Rector would also make me really happy. Here again, just the closeness and trust and faith that these people have in one another is my jam.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Canon-typical levels of Cassandra's association with the Chantry and belief in the Maker/Andraste/the Herald shouldn't be taken to contravene my DNW of Christian themes, but I wouldn't want Satinalia fic or something focused on the Andrastian faith. Please don't put F!Lavellan in a different romance, even if we didn't match on the Cassandra ship.

—

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist

Character(s):

Group: Olivier Mira Armstrong/Maria Ross

Genre(s):

Action/Adventure

Canon-Style Plot - Freeform

Getting Together

I'll admit: I am a shallow, shallow person who loves the heartwarming and id-satisfying Briggs loyalty-kink complex (The watch! Buccaneer handing Olivier a clean pair of gloves after she kills Raven! Constant and deeply sincere saluting! Olivier’s explanation of why she wants Miles around and her lack of patience for anyone’s shit) but would like an f/f manifestation of it for actual shipping. Post-canon or AU where Maria is assigned to Briggs, or works for Olivier in Central? Does Maria foil a plot against Olivier, or Olivier save Maria's life in battle? Does Olivier order Maria into a firefight? Hit me.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Olivier/men, even mentioned.

—

Fandom: The Locked Tomb

Character(s):

Matthias Nonius

Genre(s):

Action/Adventure

Canon-Style Plot - Freeform

Fantasy

Nonius was one of my favorite new characters in Harrow the Ninth. His whole impossible arrival via evocation-by-poetry, battle with the Sleeper, and epic departure to fight the Beast made me very, very happy on levels I have trouble explaining. It was so heartwarming?! Because it was impossible, and because poetry won, and because they went off to do the best they could...I don't know, exactly. (Iiiii also just love that he's named for the Redwall mouse.) I'd love to read more about his life - being unprepossessing and very human but also paladin-like and really fucking good at being a swordsman, representing the Ninth House in slightly less decrepit times, his mysterious past with Gideon the First (and Pyrrha, sort of), however it happened that he died far from home in an unknown place and couldn't be recovered for burial, "chickenshits don't get beer"? Or, er, his afterlife - going to fight with Marta, Ortus, and Pro, re-encountering G1deon as allies...

—

Fandom: Motherland: Fort Salem

Character(s):

Group: Abigail Bellweather/Raelle Collar

Original Historical Witch Character(s)

Group: Sarah Alder & First Bellweather Ancestor

Genre(s):

Action/Adventure

Canon-Style Plot - Freeform

Mystery/Procedural

Worldbuilding

I fell hard for this show and Abigail/Raelle is the ship I’m most excited about - they get off to a bad start for all kinds of personal history reasons and have problems with each other, but when it gets down to the wire Abigail would do anything for Raelle and is very gung-ho about having Raelle’s unconventional but extremely powerful magic under her leadership, regardless of Raelle being a loose cannon. She told her she loved her!! <3 And by the end, Raelle also clearly knows what Abigail's going through (like when she talks her down in "Citydrop"), respects her leadership, and cares deeply about her and wants to protect her in return. I love that loyalty dynamic, and their competence as fighters/witches.

Physical combat, strength in general, magical strength, ability to work magic together, knowledge of the magical canon vs. out-of-the-box techniques...what parts of their skills and their bond could be challenged in the weird dimension that the end of season 1 leaves them in? Or when they get back home and new challenges await? (In my head, the decision not to send them to War College is not revoked; the unit becomes some kind of special-forces secret strike team rather than cannon fodder.) Maybe something where Raelle goes/has gone into a fight as a berserker-type for Abigail and then comes back to her, or where Abigail protects/has protected her soldier (her girl!! I love her protectiveness of Raelle towards the other cadets, imagine it in a battle!)? Or an arranged marriage AU where it's usual for witch soldiers to marry to combine their magic power or something...If including smut in the story, I'd especially be up for something d/s-y where the loyalty-kinky dynamic of Raelle being Abigail's weapon, at her command, is echoed in sex!

OR. The alternate history that the show has created is so interesting and I'm craving expansion of that through fic! Tell me about the Bellweather ancestor who was a slave and ended up powerful and influential enough to begin a dynasty, and how she met and was recruited by Alder. Or other enslaved witches, witches in the American Revolution or the Civil War, or the founding of Fort Salem and standardization of American military magic with its various influences, or Chinese or Jewish or Mexican immigrant witches who maybe came from different magic traditions and might have had to make the choice of whether or not to reveal that they had magic (if the system knows you because of your descent in the country?), serving their country but also binding their daughters and granddaughters forever.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Abigail/Adil (at all; if he's mentioned, please make them just friends), focus on Raelle/Scylla (dwelling on Raelle still having feelings for Scylla or on her getting over Scylla for Abigail; you don't need to retcon their having been together), Scylla bashing.

—

Fandom: Where the Sky is Silver and the Earth is Brass

Character(s):

Chaye Roznatovsky

Demon

Genre(s):

Fantasy

Canon-Style Plot - Freeform

Worldbuilding

Anything expanding on this story would make me really happy. Chaye’s years with the partisans, the comrades-in-arms she had and loved then and who else’s memory she holds or makes into a weapon, her journey to America, going by the surname of “no one.” The demon’s mirror world, its loss of that world (what exactly happened on the other side?) and its need to be where Jews are, demon Judaism? Or the future of both of them now that they’ve found each other!

Fandom-Specific DNW/Opt-In: DNW Chaye/demon. The premise of the story being what it is, I'm explicitly okay with antisemitism being a prominent feature of the story if you write something that covers either or both characters' backstory, but would prefer post-war antisemitism not to be a focus.

[sciencespies]

Chefs Are Helping Hungry Voters Waiting in Line at the Polls

https://sciencespies.com/history/chefs-are-helping-hungry-voters-waiting-in-line-at-the-polls/

Chefs Are Helping Hungry Voters Waiting in Line at the Polls

In this unusual election season, airwaves and inboxes and newsfeeds are jam-packed with images of snaking lines at the polls, discussions of mail-in ballots, and endless back-and-forths about the relative virtues of in-person versus absentee voting. Almost everyone agrees that casting a ballot in the United States shouldn’t be so difficult or so complicated. And one intrepid group of cooks and chefs has decided to roll up its collective sleeve and do something to ease the waits of those standing in line. Chefs For The Polls is the brainchild of the renowned chef José Andrés whose World Central Kitchen has fed people everywhere from Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Maria and Laura and California during the ongoing wildfires. But wait a minute, aren’t havoc-creating storms and out-of-control fires a far cry from the everyday American business of voting?

Nathan Mook, CEO of World Central Kitchen understands the question, agreeing that it was a bit of a leap from offering humanitarian relief in the face of natural disasters to bringing food to polling sites in cities such as Chicago and Atlanta and Louisville. “What is a disaster relief organization that’s on the front lines of earthquakes and hurricanes doing involved with elections in the U.S.?” asks Mook.

But, he explains, “We had a shift in our thinking about the role World Central Kitchen can play in situations that might not on the surface be as obvious as a hurricane. We were thinking, ‘Nobody should stand in line for this many hours.’ And wondering, ‘Is there something we can do?’”

Read our story: “José Andrés’ Generous Helping of Humanity”

And indeed there was. Because the restaurant industry has been so hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic—especially Mom and Pop places, food trucks, small catering outfits—Mook and Andrés hit on an elegant solution: They raised money from donors to underwrite the purchase of food locally in each city—tacos in Milwaukee, barbecue in Atlanta, cupcakes in Houston, empanadas in Portland, burritos in L.A. Those vendors would offer their particular specialty to people waiting in line at polling places in their city.

The new initiative’s tryout came in June during the Democratic primary in Louisville, Kentucky, where just one polling place was allotted for 600,000 people. “We didn’t know what to expect,” remembers Mook. “We were working with chef Ed Lee who had been doing a lot of work during the pandemic to support the industry. We got a few food trucks, and Ed was there cooking burgers. It was very successful—a nice way to reach families that need food. So we thought, ‘Let’s see what we can do around the country.’”

Chef José Andrés, recipient of the 2019 Julia Child Award, donated a number of defining items from his humanitarian efforts around the globe to the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. The collection, which was on view temporarily last year, includes his stockpot, a stirring paddle and a vest he wore while preparing meals in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

(NMAH)

Andrés, the high-profile public face of both Chefs for the Polls and World Central Kitchen, is passionate about voting in America, notwithstanding that he was born in Spain during the Franco regime. Famous for television shows and his Washington, D.C., restaurants Jaleo and Minibar, he broke new (and delicious) ground last year when he opened the ambitious Mercado Little Spain in New York’s sprawling Hudson Yards development. Andrés, who won the prestigious Julia Child Award in 2019, says he wanted to give something back to his adopted country during this turbulent election cycle.

“We created Chefs for the Polls to make sure that every American—we the people, Republicans and Democrats, people waiting on line for long hours for different reasons—have the right to a plate of food and water,” Andrés explained to late night television host Trevor Noah in October, adding that in many states, “Men and women, especially in poor neighborhoods, [are] waiting for 3, 4, 12 hours. This should not be happening in America. I’m only trying to make sure every American has the possibility to vote. And bringing food and water to them as they wait in line we believe is the least we can do.”

“You may be a Republican, you may be a Democrat, but let’s face it,” he told Noah, “we are in the middle of the biggest pandemic that we’ve experienced over a hundred years. We need to protect every single American and the very simple act of voting.”

Paula Johnson, curator of food history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, sees Andrés in the context of the growing movement for food justice, the theme of the Smithsonian’s recent Food History Weekend. “José Andrés is a passionate, tireless, and incredibly effective advocate for food justice,” she says, adding that Andrés “takes action to ensure that individuals and communities have access to healthy, safe and nutritious food.”

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to threaten vulnerable communities, World Central Kitchen is working with restaurants and kitchens to “get meals to those who need them most.”

(World Central Kitchen/WCK.org)

One result of Andrés’ very effective advocacy is that Chefs For The Polls now has more than 50 restaurants, food trucks and chefs as partners, bringing food that might be a voter’s lunch, dinner or snack to polling places in more than 25 cities. The organization has teamed with Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote and LeBron James’ More Than a Vote, and on Early Voting Day, which was Saturday, October 24, Chefs For The Polls brought nourishment to polling sites in more than 20 states.

“To give is a great feeling,” says Dan Raskin, the fourth generation of his family to run Chicago’s Manny’s Deli. It’s just one of the many small restaurants participating in Chefs For the Polls, and like others, it had been struggling during the pandemic. “It was pretty desolate downtown,” notes Raskin. “We connected with World Central Kitchen and started delivering our food to different neighborhoods. The thing to me that was best about this was not just providing the meals to people but supporting the businesses that are keeping people working in Chicago. So when they came to us and said, ‘We have another program.’ Without hesitation, I said, ‘Of course!’”

Raskin not only offered his Jewish delicatessen’s classic corned beef sandwiches but also turkey sandwiches and a vegetarian version made with marinated mushrooms—something for everyone. Given the long lines to vote, “most people eat the food right away,” says Raskin, but some take it home to savor later. “It’s important to support everybody. One of the things I liked about this: It’s not based on who you’re voting for. It brings the community together.”

And while Chefs For The Polls can’t help shorten the lines—or put an end to the snow or rain or heat bedeviling those waiting hours to cast their ballots—it can ease the wait by putting a little sustenance in voters’ bellies.

#History

[my-world-travel]

Auschwitz, Poland

The camp is free to enter, and there is a free shuttle going between Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau). Getting to the camp is a €4 coach ride that takes about an hour. Prebook your tickets. Entry is free, but timed so as not to flood the camp with people,and the camp is often fully booked on the day of. The visitor site recommends joining a tour or hiring a guide, both of which will cost money. I did not, and did not feel like I was missing anything, but: I am Jewish. I grew up with this.

I cannot write a neutral or chipper post here. It’s not possible.

I don’t remember very much of the coach trip or waiting for our entry time except that I was so afraid I was nauseous. Large packs (A4 size, give or take) are not allowed in and have to be left at bag check, which is fine. I kept my camera on me, but photos are prohibited inside the buildings. In many places I will quibble with or outright ignore prohibitions on photos; here, I had no difficulty complying. The photos are all online if you know what to look for, and the rest is...impossible to document in a picture.

There is an area between the modern ticket entry and the famous gate, and that’s where I broke down for the first time.

I need readers to know: I don’t cry much. I don’t cry in movies or at books, it’s very rare for musicals. In my personal life, it’s highly mental health dependent (predictably), but any month where I cry more than once is unusual.

I stepped into this place and started crying.

I couldn’t explain it then and still can’t now. I went from 0 to 100 on tears in 3 seconds, then my blood pressure went through the floor and I had to sit down and struggle to breathe. It was an unconscious emotion, more powerful and primal than the ones we normally deal with, and I just had to wait it out.

And then we went through the gate and I had to force myself to step, because maybe it’s superstition and maybe it’s logic, but I had family who walked under this gate and didn’t walk out again.

At any rate, the camp is...more rattling for what it isn’t. Tired brick buildings and badly paved streets are a feature of most cities, and even the barred windows aren’t unusual. But my mom and my brother and I are descended from a couple who fled Russia in 1905; our several-greats aunt visited the area in 1938. None of the people she met survived. We still don’t know what happened to most of them. I learned very quickly that Auschwitz is an intensely personal experience, and if you bring with your own familial trauma, it will be a much harder trip. There were certainly people for whom this was an outdoor museum.

Many of the blocks are closed to visitors, but a number have been renovated and turned into exhibits. Some are very well done (one block is dedicated to the Roma and Sinti, who do not get the appropriate recognition), some are, if not well designed, powerful without that (a block with photos of the murdered, along with names, dates, and professions--when we have them, which isn’t always), a few I couldn’t go in, and some...are bad.

In 2018, Poland made it illegal to say Poles were complicit in the Holocaust. This is somewhat staggering, because without question, Poles were incredibly complicit in the Holocaust--if not as actors, then frequently as those-refusing-to-act. And at the same time, they were the racial group second targeted by Nazis, the nation to lose the highest percentage of its original population, and the nation to produce the most Righteous Among the Nations--those goyim who risked their lives to save Jews. These are not mutually exclusive statements. Rather, in 1939 Poland had a population of 35 million who spent either the next 6 years or the rest of their lives under Nazi occupation. In that sort of centrifuge, a wide range of human behavior comes to light which wasn’t previously seen--some of it good, some of it unfathomably bad.

Poles aided in Jewish liquidations, they stood by whilst the Einsatzgruppen shot their way through shtetls, and after the war, they perpetrated a pogrom which killed 42 Jews--42 humans. And in erasing their involvement, the modern Polish government continues a long and sordid history of blaming anyone-but-us for antisemitism. 

There is no mention of Polish involvement in the blocks. As far as Auschwitz is concerned, Jews just turned up on trains. They never lay out how the liquidation happened. Auschwitz I was originally a Polish camp, and it’s sensible that much of the exhibits there focus on the experience of Poles--but Auschwitz II was flattened, so as a result most of the exhibits at all focus on the Poles. And the majority of the people murdered there were Jewish. (Horribly, not even Polish Jews. The largest nationality murdered at Auschwitz were Hungarians--400,000--followed by Poles--300,000 Polish Jews and 70,000 Polish goyim. The vast majority of Polish Jews died at the hands of the Einsatzgruppen.)

However, I would rather be pissed off than...whatever the other emotion was. Fear, most likely.

Everyone is going to be affected differently by the blocks. One I couldn’t go in, just sat outside and shook, but I can’t now remember which one it was. Another had, and it has taken me ages to be able to type this out, a large glass box filled with human hair. I couldn’t stay there. I ran out, I bumped into people, I’m never so rude but I--

Every person whose hair was in that box was murdered.

Block 10, the medical block, is permanently closed. That’s for the best.

Block 11, the execution block, is the least horrible, ironically. Largely because it is so familiar to any prison anywhere, and so much of it is targeted at breaking individuals. Compare the showers, which are designed at breaking masses of people, entire towns in a single day. The level of horror is different.

We were unable to go into every block. Eventually we went back towards the entrance, where there are two points of interest: The showers, and a gallows.

The showers are actually a recreation, as the originals were destroyed. They are quite bad enough as is.

The gallows marks the spot where Rudolf Höss was executed for crimes against the Polish nation as Kommandant of Auschwitz for most of the war. In general I oppose the death penalty but I admit to pleasure at the number of Nazis who were executed for their actions--a feeling only reinforced by how many of them only expressed any sort of regret at the end.

That was all in Auschwitz I. After leaving the camp, you take a free shuttle to Auschwitz II Birkenau, which is where the majority of the murders took place. The site was largely flattened by the Russians (good riddance, honestly), although there are a few standing blocks and a boxcar.

The worst thing about Birkenau is how large it is. It is a full mile from the gate to the crematoria, and the tracks run right up until the end. You could fit a mile of boxcars in here, and every one of them crammed with people. It makes certain numbers easier to process.

At the end of the tracks is a memorial to the fallen, and the remains of the crematoria. Also destroyed by Soviet tanks; I can’t regret that at all. They are dark and twisted, a fitting memorial. Standing there, you can just about see the gate.

This post is dedicated to Alter Shimshilevitz, who was murdered in Eastern Europe some time between 1939 and 1945. His older sister is my great-great grandmother.

[mrsq8geek]

Advice for an aspiring author hoping to write lgbt muslim characters?

Hi, thanks for your question!  This is quite the rabbit hole, so I can't cover everything, but I did my best.  Some general guidelines and then my own view:

1. Do not write this story unless it is from personal experience or with the direct express written permission from the person it’s based on, and I hesitate with that second one.  Like many other experiences, this story hasn’t been told all that often, so unless you’re one of the above, you don’t have many points of reference and will probably get it wrong and, I suspect, as ‘exotic’.

That said:

2.  Start by examining yourself. One of my favourite resources is @writingwithcolor​, which has many great references for this.  At this point, we're asking questions such as "Why do you not want to represent us?" and "Why do you need to tell this story right now?" among others.  Do check it out.

3.  Please, please don't write an apologetic acceptably assimilated model minority.  I don't know where you're from, or where you intend to set the story, but we're all influenced by American media, so I feel it's important to mention.  We generally don't have positive feelings towards those characters, let alone relating to them, at least not to the aspects where they're supposed to represent us.

(My personal pet peeve example is Abed Nadir from Community, a Muslim enamoured with Christmas and is an all-around Acceptable Arab... played by an Indian actor.  It's extra irking because the show was touted as being Better Than Big Bang Theory, and it seemed okay addressing many other nuances, but when it came to this? Think of it this way: why didn't they cast an Asian actress to play Britta or Annie and called her white? Or, indeed, an Indian actress to play Shirley and called her black? Because clearly they believe the audience can't tell the difference? Arabs are black or white but not brown, guys.  Not all Arabs are Muslims and vice versa.  Some Muslims are (gasp!) white.)

Anyway, the point is Abed, and others like him, are non-threatening.  They reject their own identity and are desperate to be Just Like Us Default White People.  While this is definitely the case for some people, 1. it's not the case for most people, 2. it's just a really tired trope especially in current times, and 3. the other side of this trope’s coin is that in order to be acceptable for The West, they have to rebel against their character’s original identity, which is just as tired.

But I digress.  You already know by asking this question that it’s controversial.  Why not play it straight instead?  Pun unintended.  Do your research, whatever way you choose to go. 

4.  Speaking of doing your research, do. your. research! Muslims are a diverse group of about 2 billion people*.  There are two major sects and many smaller ones.  In the major ones, homosexuality (etc) is a sin, haram, full stop, end of sentence.  Any level of presenting like the opposite gender is not only haram, it’s cursed.  Yes, there are many people coming up with exceptions and loopholes, or just doing what they want regardless, and if you want to write about them, that's your prerogative, but:

* so Kamala Khan, for example, is completely unrelatable to me. (See: 9)

5.  You know what else is considered haram in majority Islam? Extra-marital sex.  Pork.  Alcohol.  Drugs, yes including cannabis, in fact even nutmeg.  People do all that anyway! Especially in non-Muslim-majority countries where the laws don’t make it harder for them, or in poorer Muslim-majority countries where people don’t get educated in religious matters, or indeed all over everywhere because not all people of any religion actively practice that religion.  It's a non-issue by this point. 

5A. The only reason LGBT Muslims is An Issue, and it’s An Issue Now, is because America’s making it one.  It’s no different than, say, modern white feminism.  They stir the pot, we deal with the mess.

5B. Muslims are people, and people aren't perfect. We know this, and we've addressed it as nauseam… and that’s just it, we’re allowed* to talk about these things because we know ourselves and our experiences.  It’s more acceptable coming from us to us because we have a common ground to start discussing things.

* I wrote allowed, but it really depends on the situation. Sometimes you’re not allowed simply because you don’t want to make it an issue, and that’s okay too.

5C. Since you’re asking, I’m assuming you’re not a Muslim yourself, and that puts a layer on scrutiny on you.  We don’t know where to begin to talk to you, and it’s worse if you represent us in any controversial way or in any way less than perfect.  Less than perfect by whose standards? It depends. Nobody knows! (See: 3)

5D. Examine yourself, research the topic, and know just what you’re trying to say.

6.  That said, here’s my personal take on it that I’d love to see someone do, but haven’t so far.  I don’t know how people arrive at their sexuality, whether it’s by nature or nurture, but they do end up there one way or another.  When it comes to Islam, you’re highly encouraged to (heterosexually, to be clear) marry and reproduce.  You’re discouraged from sex outside that framework.  If you are unable to marry for whatever reason, you’re supposed to find a way to deal with it. Fasting is often recommended.

And the way I see it, finding yourself not being attracted to the opposite gender is just one reason to not marry.  “So I NEVER get to have sex?” Yes, just like your straight brothers and sisters who realize they can never marry for their own reasons. Maybe their health prevents them. Maybe they have family depending on them, especially financially, and they realize can’t add a husband or wife into the mix. Maybe they’re incompatible with the person they wanted.  

The West worships Romantic Love (also money, but that’s another thing), but it really isn’t everything in life*.  Just see any post here on tumblr dot com discussing the different kinds of love the Romans acknowledged and wrote about extensively.  Yes, it’s a powerful drive, but again, it’s not the only thing in life, and coming to that realization is its own journey.

* (Something something Harry Potter)

I am so, so sick and tired of characters who don’t practice their religion (“hi, I’m Muslim/Jewish/Christian/Hindu/Buddhist/whatever, but I will have that pork, that beef cheeseburger, whatever”*), and equally tired of characters who are the personification of their religion (“hi, I’m religious, hear me act out my stereotypes”). Don’t get me started on characters who exist just so the authors can bash that religion.  

* a recent disappointing example was the show Crazy Ex Girlfriend.  When Rebecca is first introduced, I was excited to learn the show was about a Jewish character, finally a religious character portrayed as practicing!  But it was quickly revealed they were focusing on the cultural aspects, and not only is she non-practicing, she doesn’t even believe any god exists.  Snore. In contrast, see: Shepherd Book from the show Firefly.  Not just a practicing Christian, an actually interesting character in his own right.  Not a perfect person by far, but someone who’s doing his utmost to live his life and still maintain his faith. 

I want a Muslim character who finds themselves attracted to whomever, someone from the same gender or whatever you want, or feeling like they want to present as not their birth gender, and then proceeds to do what so many of us real-life Muslims do: find ways to deal with it and come to terms with it.  Acknowledge it and make peace with it.  Make the choice, the conscious decision, to remain faithful to their beliefs and maybe not pursue a romantic relationship with the other person… and instead interact with them like a human being they care about.  Help them reach a goal or achieve a dream, keep them safe from harm, something.  Maybe focus on the traits of the other gender that are accessible, or fight the toxic effects of the patriarchy, something.  Writing like “a happy ending == they end up together”, and any and all other outcomes are Bad and Tragic and Void, is boring and unrealistic.

Just as a black woman being soft and feminine is a rebellion against the mainstream, a religious character sticking to their faith above all else is way more interesting than yet another character breaking the rules.

Addendums:

7. “But Islam is homophobic?” No, Islam has rules against intentionally engaging in specific behaviors.  You’re not faulted for having low alcohol tolerance, you’re faulted for the act of consumption. You’re not faulted for being addicted to drugs, you’re faulted for making the decision to try it the first time, or if you were tricked into it, for not trying to get clean once you’re there.  However!  People, all people, hashtag not just Muslims, often try to enforce rules by creating fear and hatred around them.  It’s a convenient societal shorthand, even if the consequences can be different than intended.  It’s the same mechanism that leads to “abstinence = zero sex ed” in the US.  Abstinence isn’t the issue, people trying to enforce it by making information around sex opaque are the ones causing problems.

So some Muslim people end up homophobic, and some Muslim people go all in the other direction, because the balance is delicate and difficult to find.  

8. “LGBT stories aren’t just about sex, what about asexuals, transsexuals, etc?” True, but most LGBT stories tend to go in that direction, and I’m keeping it as broad as I can here.

9. Even if your character is Muslim but not Arab, it’s probably going to come up, in your research if not in your story.  Although the most populous Muslim nation is Indonesia and the most famous “Muslim” terrorists are Afghani, the most prominent Muslim sites are in Saudi Arabia and Palestine.  The branding is there.  With that in mind, required reading is the film Reel Bad Arabs, and any primers you can find on Orientalism, Colonialism, and Imperialism.

***

Honourable mentions:

Check out the Saudi series Masameer by Myrkott on YouTube, many episodes have subtitles. They recently made a movie and it's on Netflix internationally!  You can't escape American Imperialism any more than you can escape British Colonialism*, but we're all way past being enamoured by them.  The Emirati series Freej is also in Youtube, sans subtitles, though the DVDs have them, and I’ll leave it at that.  Hashtag quarantine let us catch up on shows?  Stay safe, stay home.

* she said, in English.

[babbushka]

im jewish but my mom & i never celebrated or practiced growing up because of my mormon father. i’m not religious, and i dont want to intrude those of faith so i’ve never been to Synagogue. do you have any advice on how to go about learning more about the jewish community? like i’d love to learn more terms and way of life experience. i’m so far removed from it all and i’m at a loss of where to start. sorry to be asking you, but you’re so nice & accepting & the only jewish person i know on here 💛

Hello there! I think it’s such a wonderful thing to want to reconnect with your culture and heritage! Please don’t apologize, I’m more than happy to share some resources with you -- but that being said, I’m certainly not an expert or a rabbi or anything, lol, so please forgive me if I forget some stuff! 

I’m not entirely sure your situation of course, but if you’re in university or college a really great way to get connected or even just learning more about the community is to join the local chapter of Hillel! Hillel is the foundation for Jewish campus life, and they host tons and tons of events that I really encourage you to participate in! 

I also understand where you’re coming from in terms of not wanting to intrude on those of faith, but if you happened to have a reform Synagogue near where you live, you can always go in and ask for reading materials or the like! Reform is much more idk I consider it to be a lot more open and accepting, than say traditional orthodox (maybe that’s just because I’m reform though lol). I’m sure that the community leaders there would be more than happy to assist you in participating in local events or celebrations in your community, even if you don’t necessarily want to go to temple every weekend :)

Other than that, I recommend following Jewish people or news outlets on social media! That’s an easy way to feel connected and current with the happenings of Jewish people across the globe, if you happen to live in an area that isn’t incredibly Jewish. 

There are some great online publications, here’s two that I looove to refer back to and am signed up on their newsletter for:

My Jewish Learning: “My Jewish Learning is all about empowering Jewish discovery for anyone interested in learning more. We offer thousands of articles, videos and other resources to help you navigate all aspects of Judaism and Jewish life — from food to history to beliefs and practices.”

Hey Alma: “When Alma launched in 2017, we called ourselves a publication for “ladies with chutzpah,” one that would cover everything from Jewish pop culture to what’s happening in the news to personal pieces about identity, feminism, and more. We still do all that, though these days we think of ourselves as a publication for anyone — regardless of gender — who cares about Jewish identity and culture and how they fit into everyday life. Still with lots of chutzpah.”

Within those websites there are tons of other resources, just explore the site and hopefully you’ll find something meaningful!

The easiest and best way though really is to surround yourself with the community as best you can. Going to events, meeting new people, even things like taking classes at a synagogue -- not necessarily like, religious ones! -- or finding a deli, a coffee shop, a grocery store that’s by Jewish people for Jewish people will expose you to the community better than reading a book about Jewish ethics ever will. If you’re Jewish, you’ll be surprised at how many other Jewish people will be incredibly interested in talking to you and helping you lol, we’re a very tight-knit community who love our own

[little-droid]

LittleDroid's Long Overdue Animorphs Re-Read: Book 1 – The Invasion - Part 1

My name is Jake. That's my first name, obviously. I can't tell you my last name. It would be too dangerous. The Controllers are everywhere. Everywhere. And if they knew my full name, they could find me and my friends, and then . . . well, let's just say I don't want them to find me. What they do to people who resist them is too horrible to think about.

If there's one thing that sticks in my mind about the Animorphs books, it's this framing device. Each book is written in the first person, from the point of view of one of the main characters telling us how they can't give away too many details, in case the bad guys find them. Each one opens with one character giving their name and telling you it's far too dangerous to give you any more identifying information. As a kid reading these, it was compelling. A little part of me always wondered if the stories were true, and the books were a convenient ploy on behalf of the Animorphs to get the word out.

Jake tells us he can't reveal who he is, or where he lives, and that his life was normal up to one Friday night at the mall.

The book introduces the main cast quickly, and doesn't waste any time toying around establishing their characters. Everyone jumps off the pages right from the get go. There's Marco, Jake's cynical and sarcastic best friend who thinks he's suaver than he really is. There's Tobias, a bit of a dreamer who gets bullied at school for being weird and having a rough home life. There's Rachel, Jake's cousin, who's fashionable, tough and an amateur gymnast. There's Cassie, who's quiet, earthy and an animal lover (and who Jake has a crush on that he refuses to do anything about!).

We don't get a huge sense of who Jake is as a person just yet. Part of that is these books are short and this one has a lot of introductory material to cover. Part of it is Jake falls into the standard 'everyman' character trope. He's serious, dependable, and we find out he recently didn't make the basketball team. Aww.

Before we get into the story properly, I want to say I'm impressed with the cast diversity in this series. Cassie is black. Marco is Hispanic. We find out later that Jake is Jewish. And while there's no explicitly queer characters on paper (there are two characters later who are confirmed by Word of God to be in a queer relationship), I imagine this has more to do with the limitations of children's publishing in the late nineties rather than a lack of intent on the part of the authors.

Especially in a sci-fi series, it's too easy to fall into the trope of space adventures being a thing for cishet white boys. Kudos to Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant for writing something a wide range of kids could recognise themselves in.

Our characters decide to walk home together from the mall and take a short cut through an abandoned construction site they've all been told they're not allowed inside. They banter back and forth, Rachel teasing Jake for implying the girls need looking after on the way home, Cassie smoothing things over. Tobias spots a brilliant light shooting across the sky.

I looked at Tobias and he looked back at me. We both knew what we thought it was, but we didn't want to say it. Marco and Rachel would have laughed, we figured.

But Cassie just blurted it right out. "It's a flying saucer!"

The kids stand stunned. They nervously debate just what the hell is going on and whether they should run before they find up, right up until the ship lands ten feet away from them. The ship is described as "about three or four times as big as our minivan" and has structural damage as if it's been in a fight.

It's Tobias who attempts to communicate first, and everyone receives a response they can only hear in their minds.

Tobias tried again. "Please, come out. We won't hurt you."

‹I know.›

Telepathic aliens? Nine year old me thought this was amazing. Heck, thirty year old me still thinks this is amazing. I blame nostalgia.

The spacecraft opens and we get our first glimpse of an Andalite. These are our 'good guy' aliens, and look like a blue and tan deer centaur with a scythe bladed scorpion tail, no mouth and an extra set of eyes on stalks on top of their heads. Five stars for quality alien design. No Star Trek style rubber foreheads here.

This did also contribute to the nightmare of costume design that was the not-anywhere-near-stellar Nickelodeon adaptation, but we don't talk about that.

The next section is fairly exposition heavy, which is to be expected. This is the introductory book in a long series. There's a lot of groundwork to lay before the real meat of the plot gets going.

The Andalite is dying, and explains that he's here because Earth is in the midst of a covert invasion by a parasitic race called the Yeerks. Grey slug aliens that crawl into the heads of other sapient creatures and take over control of their brains. Evil space cordyceps. The Andalites have been fighting back against them and their takeover, but they were massively outgunned and lost the battle in orbit. They were able to get a message back to their home planet for reinforcements, but those could take over a year to arrive.

Without anyone else to turn to, the Andalite asks Jake to retrieve a blue box from his ship. Jake also finds a little holographic picture of the Andalite's family in his ship and contemplates how sad it is he's dying so far from home, which upset nine year old me greatly.

The Andalite offers to give the kids a piece of technology to help them hold out against the Yeerk invasion until help arrives: the power to physically transform into any animal they can touch.

No one is thrilled about this. Marco points out “this whole thing is nuts”, which becomes a bit of a catchphrase for him over the rest of the series. He's who you count on to point out when things are getting ridiculous. It's Cassie who agrees first, but before the others can get on board, Yeerk ships appear overhead.

Out of time, they each touch one side of the blue box.

‹Go now,› the Andalite said. ‹Only remember this - never remain in animal form for more than two of your Earth hours. Never! That is the greatest danger of the morphing! If you stay longer than two hours you will be trapped, unable to return to human form.›

Aside from the antagonists, the two hour time limit becomes one of the main sources of tension in the series. Having a countdown on being forced to morph back to human complicates their missions and adds a layer of logistics that ramps up the tension in almost every book to come.

Speaking of antagonists, it's at this point we're introduced to our main villain: Visser Three. The only Andalite to ever be taken over by a Yeerk, and the only enemy also capable of morphing.

I would like to go on record here to say I adore Visser Three. He's a first class graduate of the Disney school of maniacal villainy, with honours in pompousness and chewing the scenery. He's the epitome of petty, vicious egomaniacs. He's Darth Vader on deer legs.

Enemy ships descend. The kids flee and hide. Tobias lingers for a moment beside the dying Andalite before being sent running. The rest of the plot exposition happens while the kids are crouched behind a half-built wall, praying they don't breath loud enough to get caught.

Visser Three disembarks from his Blade ship along with his hordes of underlings. We're introduced to two more alien species, both controlled by the Yeerks. Hork-Bajir: huge bipedal raptor-esque creatures covered in blades from top to toe. And Taxxons: ten foot long centipedes with jelly-like, red eyes, and a voracious appetite for any living thing they can devour.

From the get go, you get the sense this isn't ever going to be a series where the odds are on our protagonists' side. The Yeerk forces are overwhelming and relentless. No-one is considering making a dashing stand against evil and hoping good will save the day. The kids are terrified. It's all they can do to stay hidden and hope they'll get out alive.

Visser Three gloats over the fallen Andalite, taunting him about how his ship has been completely destroyed and no-one else is left. We learn the good Andalite's name, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, and that he's a Prince, some kind of military hero. He doesn't rise to Visser Three's taunting, and we're treated to the first of the Visser's many classic villain speeches.

‹What do you want with these Humans?› the Andalite asked. ‹You have your Taxxon allies. You have your Hork-Bajir slaves. And other slaves from other worlds. Why these people?›

‹Because there are so many, and they are so weak,› Visser Three sneered. ‹Billions of bodies! And they have no idea what's happening. With this many hosts we can spread throughout the universe, unstoppable! Billions of us. We'll have to build a thousand new Yeerk pools just to raise Yeerks for half this number of bodies. Face it, Andalite, you have fought well and bravely. But you have lost.›

Elfangor's response to this is to whack Visser Three with his tail blade and gouge a chunk out of his shoulder, and honestly? Good for him. Unfortunately Visser Three retaliates by having his ship disintegrate Elfangor's space pod, morphs into a monster that can only be described as a gargantuan mouth on tree trunk legs and eats Elfangor alive.

Yep, you read that right. See, up until this point, nine year old me was still convinced they were somehow going to save the alien and have an alien friend to go with them on space adventures. That's how adventure books work, right? Nine year old me quickly had to learn this series wasn't going to pull its punches. At all. Nine year old me had some growing up to do.

Nerves get the better of Marco after listening to psychic screams of an alien he just met being chewed into kibble, and he throws up, inadvertently giving away their hiding spot. Cue searchlights and armed soldiers. The kids run, splitting up to scrape a marginally better change of some of them getting away. Jake stumbles into an empty building and only manages to escape by literally tripping over a homeless man who the Yeerks murder in his stead. It's not explicit in the text, and Jake hopes the man gets away, but the Yeerks are bringing the heads back for identification. I think it's safe to say that guy is dead.

Jake keeps running and doesn't look back.

[archtroop]

So for you. What other fandoms are you in? When, how and why wincest?😁😍😎

Oh my, gird your loins, this is gonna be a long confession. 

LIFE:

I little background (This is all very relevant, because it had direct affect on whatever choices I would make, stuff I might like and my own personal evolution as a human, leading me to where I am today - including my on-the-side fandom life, which are a huge part of me).

Female, only child - I was born in 1990 in Soviet Russia/Russia (it’s a murky year for definitions) in the farthest eastern piece of land on the globe that still constitutes as Asia, a place where they learn Japanese as a second language instead of English. I’m Jewish on my mother’s side, my father is not. Our small family migrated to Israel in 1996. I was enrolled in a religious school, for the first two years of my education. Religious orthodox little girls are bitches. I suffered. I was 6, and a 100% language barrier. Then I was enrolled in a state-religious school for 4 years. Made my first 2-3 friends. One of them is my forever best like-a-sister-to-me friend since then. Still, it screwed with my head just enough - having a secular background and family and religious preaching at school fucks you up real good. By this time I had an actual artificially ensued phobia of males. Boy, man, horse. If it had a dick I was opting out in the opposite direction. It was also a very violent time, hits and punches, teeth and nails. Got suspended once, this other girl in my class broke a guy’s teeth, ended in a juvenile institute for girls.  

The next 6 years (12-18 years old) I spent in a secular boarding school, which, in Israel, are inherently patriotic in nature. These years were my most definitive and had the greatest influence on my preferences. Had my real-life heterosexual-life partner thing going for me, and the plan wast to graduate and move together. Never panned out.  18-20 - served my two mandatory 2 years (as a phlebotomist, of all things). This was when I eventually snapped and began actually maturing. By that time I still had zero interest i the opposite sex (or the same sex for the matter). At 19.6 y/o met my future husband and the future father of our now 2.6 y/o girl, began my B.Arch (took me almost a decade to finish because of pregnancy and financials). As of now, I am an Architect in practice, I work in a small but a very affluent in work firm/office. Waiting for my diploma to be issued.

So, I am trilingual (Russian. Hebrew, English), married+1, architect, artist on a hiatus, I have zero fear of needles and blood, love to read, love to interpret, love to translate. I also failed the Kinsey Scale Test twice. Until very recently in my life I couldn’t pick up on sexual innuendo at all, couldn’t identify if I was hit on, too.  Today I like sex just fine, but it’s not a prime need of mine, which lead to me and my (very sexual in nature) significant other to agree on an open relationship. 100/100 would recommend. 

FANDOM:

TV was a friend. I was 7-8 y/o when Pokemon hit the little screen in Israel. For technical reasons, I couldn’t watch the first episode. So I refused to watch the next ones too, until I’ll catch the first one on the saturday reruns. This marks my first exhibit of obsessiveness towards a franchise/media.  But Pokemon was for cool kids, and for boys, so I can’t enjoy it (unfortunately this is going to be a recurring theme). I absorbed Hebrew quickly, and found myself spending time in the library. TV, library, pencils and paper were all I cared for. I was about 10 when girls at school, who had access (early 2000′) were giggling about something called Sailor Moon. But they were the very cool kids. Can’t have that at all. I read Interview With a Vampire when I was 11-12. I then flipped the book and realized there was apparently a movie, too. It will be years until I’ll have the chance to watch it. I switched from teen books to adults fantasy and horror at that time. I remembering giggling through R.L. Stein’s stuff. It was like candy to me. I would read whatever I could find. I didn’t listen to music. Music is for the cool kids, and I am not allowed. There was no music at home, too.

About that time, I found Flowers In The Attic and drank it up. The things that lurk in school libraries. I was engrossed in the darkness, the horror. The pain and angst and the, well, horror. It was beautiful. Then came Dragon Lance, and I fell for the Caramon & Raistlin story. Fantasy, dragons, and two brothers against ll odds, the warrior and the mage, who are forever bound, and when they die, they join each other in the river of souls. I loved it to bits.  I couldn’t survive through Tolkien. loved The Hobbit, but 30 pages into the third book and he was still describing a forest - so I ditched it. Harry Potter was huge to me, I drank it up. But Harry Potter was for cool kids, so I couldn’t really talk about it. And then when I was 13-14 y/o a friend introduced me to manga. It was 2003-04, the Internet was becoming  prominent feature of life. My first manga was Gravitation. Of all things. But manga and anime is for really cool girls, I can’t have that. But now I had Internet access. 

That’s when I encountered Angel Sanctuary, and Kaori Yuki’s work. Gothic Lolita, Visual Kei. I’v found my niche. No one of the cool kids had any idea about those pretty things, I could hold them and have them for myself. It became one of my greatest inspirations. I read tons of manga online, combing the web for scanlation groups. Anime, too. I became very good at finding stuff. Like, real good. I even have two Angel Sanctuary fanart pieces.

Did you notice a theme already? I haven’t until very recently.

In 2005-6 (I can’t recall for sure) Israeli AXN release a promo of Supernatural. I recognized that “very good actor whose character(s) I really liked from Dark Angel”. It as all true but also I was THAT aloof about physical human beauty  and attraction. But I was interrupted watching the Pilot and begrudgingly decided to follow upon it on a saturday rerun, Guess what, I got interrupted again. And it was ON, TV be damned. I hit the Google, and piracy was it. I watched Supernatural with reverence. It was entirely MINE. I opened an account on  fan-wikia Supernatural site, which I lost and forgot about that was my first ever fandom-related interaction. By that time I also had a DeviantART page, which I kinda left as a storage unit as life took its course.  Basically, in August 2020 I will hit 30, which would mean Supernatural officially was by my side half of my life. 

I had no idea what shipping was, though. Until Teen Wolf, funny enough.  Teen Wolf was my first ship experience. I didn’t read fanfic until then. Sterek somehow managed to pull me in that world. It’s that palpable on screen. So I joined tumblr. It took me time to get accustomed to all this, because even fandom is for cool kids but OH I AM ANONYMOUS.

And I gradually became more aware. Of pretty much everything. With Supernatural keeping me alive through my degree studies, prompting my sexuality to emerge (it is still a fucked up sexuality. But it’s a start.). Worked through issues with Supernatural on my back-burner all the time. 

Then Supernatural hit 10 seasons. And I had to celebrate, and it was my first and only (so far) Supernatural fanart. I began reading fanfic. But so much of it wasn’t what I was looking for. So after some contemplation, I decided to try and write my own (EasyRush). And that was it for me, I essentially drowned in it, the wincest. Now that is had a name. As of today, it has become this thing that I can dig into to find me some solace after a hard day. 

I can’t even say that there was a specific scene. Or a why. It’s just IS. Like the John-finds-out fics: A gradual dawning realization. Looking back, it’s all the elements of whatever I consumed merged and acted out by very talented and compelling actors. 

It has the setting of Flowers In The Attic, the mythology of Angel Sanctuary and the charm of Dragon Lance, turned up to eleven. It’s Gothic Urban Fantasy, gritty and beautiful (I miss classic Supernatural aesthetic BADLY) and is a survivor.

On retrospect I begin to pinpoint moments that have subconsciously lead me to it. There was never any other option.

Wincest is never for the cool kids. It’s for people like me.

P.S.: I think there might be a part two. I need to go. This was a great walk down memory lane, it’s not even half of it.

[aupairadventures]

Retracing my Ancestors’ Footsteps in Budapest, Hungary

I promise that I have a good reason for not writing and publishing a blog post in over a month! Since the beginning of April, I’ve been away traveling, exploring new places, making memories, and having a blast.

After spending a little bit of time in Paris, I set off for my first destination: Budapest, Hungary. Due to my grandmother’s Hungarian family ancestry, visiting Hungary has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I’ve always been very close and had a special connection with my grandmother. Ever since I was young, I always loved hearing her funny, touching, and wild stories about her childhood and growing up in a Hungarian immigrant family. I especially love my grandmother’s stories about her grandmother, a strong, bold, and colorful woman named Anna Zvolanek. As my grandmother’s story goes, Anna left Hungary when she was only 16 in search of new opportunities. She immigrated to the US, passed through Ellis Island, and then began a new life in Long Island, New York. She soon fell in love with my grandmother’s grandfather, another Hungarian immigrant named Edward Cheslock, and the two began a family of their own. According to my grandmother, Anna was a phenomenal cook and pastry maker, and was famous in the neighborhood for her incredible apple strudel, poppy seed roll cakes, and apricot “rugelach.”

According to my grandmother, Anna grew up in a small village just outside of Budapest. My grandmother says that when she was a child, she remembers seeing Anna often returning to Budapest to visit her extended family. My theory is that during my time in Budapest, I must have unknowing walked down the same street that Anna once did or visited the same place that once was familiar to her. It’s for these reasons that my journey to Budapest didn’t feel like any regular trip, but rather like an important spiritual pilgrimage. During my time in this beautiful city, I feel that I truly learned the importance of returning to your roots, learning about your family’s history, and retracing your ancestor’s footsteps. This experience made me feel even closer to my grandmother and gave me a better understanding of everything that has led to my existence and made me who I am. 

I was so happy to have my friend Gabriela by my side during this journey, and I have her to thank for this amazing time spent in Budapest. Several months ago, after Gabriela read in one of my blog posts that it was my dream to one day travel to Hungary, she reached out to me. She told me that she also had been wanting to explore this country and asked if I would want to travel there together. I responded that yes, of course, I would, and a plan was created!

I’ve known Gabriela since we were tiny students at Morris Elementary School in Lenox, Massachusetts, and our houses were on the same street. Gabriela and I both attended high school at Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where we grew close while participating in our school’s Theme Committee. Since Gabriela is a year older than me and was in the grade above me, I’ve always looked up to her as a role model and thought of her as a hardworking student, compassionate community member, strong young woman, and great friend. After traveling with her, I’m glad to add “Amazing travel companion” to that list! After our time together in Budapest, I’ve become convinced that we’re a traveling-match made in Heaven. Years ago, who would have thought that Miss Hall’s two girls from Lenox would one day be living abroad, one in Italy and the other in France, and would decide to meet up in Hungary? 

Throughout the trip, the two of us had an absolute blast together. Almost every moment that we spent together was filled with the best conversations. We talked about everything from  how our adventures abroad have been to the 2020 American presidential election. We talked politics, feminism, had deep philosophical conversations that made my head hurt, re-lived old Miss Hall’s memories, shared silly stories, and laughed non-stop. I always love the conversations that the two of us share. We could talk for hours about everything and nothing all at once, and somehow never run out of things to talk about. 

The moment that I fell in love with Budapest, I fell fast and hard. While I had never visited this city before and everything was unfamiliar to me, I simultaneously felt so comfortable and so at home. Every ray of sunshine or gust of wind seemed to be calling out to me, “Welcome home, Shanti. We’re so happy to have you back.” Budapest is without a doubt one of the coolest cities that I’ve ever visited. The streets are filled with such distinctive character, and the city radiates an intriguing, funky energy that I’ve never encountered anywhere else. Whether you’re exploring the Jewish quarter, visiting a stunning cathedral, trying a new kind of traditional Hungarian food, watching a breathtaking sunset, or seeing the city’s sparking lights at night time, there’s always something new and exciting to try out. There’s never a shortage of interesting things to do, and “boring” is the last word that anyone would ever use to describe this place. This city always keeps you guessing, and there are surprises waiting around every corner. 

It goes without saying that I highly recommend visiting Budapest to my fellow travelers! Here are some of my favorite places that you absolutely have to visit:

Not too far from our hostel (a lovely little spot called “Meander Hostel” that I would recommend that my fellow travelers on a budget,) was St. Stephen’s Basilica. While this building might look a little surprising and not like a traditional church, (“Oh! I thought it was a government building!” exclaimed Gabriela when she saw it for the first time), it is nonetheless a beautiful and fascinating piece of architecture. If you think that the outside is gorgeous, just wait until you see the interior. With its colorful, golden, mosaic ceilings, the inside of this basilica was so beautiful that it made my jaw drop. On Sunday morning, I joined Gabriela as she attended an 8 am mass at St. Stephen’s. While I am not at all religious myself, I still greatly enjoyed this experience. I thought that the ceremony was so interesting and beautiful, and it made me understand why attending mass each Sunday morning is so important to so many people around the world. While I still don’t consider myself a religious person and don’t think that attending weekly mass will be a part of my life,  I will happily join my religious friends when they attend mass, if I’m invited. Thank you, Gabriela, for sharing this experience with me and answering all of my many questions!

One of my favorite places in Budapest is Fisherman’s Bastion, an absolutely gorgeous terrace located on the Buda side of the Danube river. Featuring 7 fairy-tale like towers, this site offers the perfect view of the beautiful city of Budapest. While standing on the terrace, you can see a panoramic view of the city and see some of Budapest’s most famous sites, such as the Chain Bridge,  St. Stephen's Basilica and the Hungarian Parliament Building. Budapest is beautiful at all times of day, but it’s especially breathtaking in the evening. I recommend going up to Fisherman’s Bastion to see a beautiful sunset and then watch nighttime fall over the city as the lights come up and the city begins to sparkle. 

One of the most beautiful places to visit at night time is the Parliament building. When the sun goes down, this building is lit up with gorgeous golden light and looks like a star shining at the edge of the Danube river. I highly recommend taking a stroll along the river next to the Parliament building in order to see this magnificent sight. Remember to walk to the back of the building to see the reflection in the water mirror, as pictures below:

Just behind Fisherman’s Bastion, you’ll find St. Matthias Cathedral. This cathedral, with a gleaming white exterior and an intriguingly unique and colorful roof, is another beautiful site. A short walk away from Fisherman’s Bastion, also located on the Buda Hill, you can find the Buda Castle. (We didn’t visit this site this time around, but we saved it for our next trip to Budapest!)

When in Budapest, you absolutely have to visit one of the thermal baths. Gabriela and I visited the Szechenyi Thermal Baths, and I can say with full authority that it was worth every penny. The warm, healing water felt absolutely incredible; our poor feet were so sore after all of the walking we did in the city, and the water definitely helped! The baths that we used were located in a large outdoor courtyard surrounding by a stunning, buttercup yellow, palace-like building. Going to the thermal baths was a great way to spend a sunny morning, and I highly recommend this activity to my fellow travelers. My only complaint was that this specific location was very touristy and quite crowded, as it’s the main thermal bath spot in Budapest. While we didn’t visit it, I’ve heard good things about another thermal bath location called Gellért, which I’ll check out the next time that I visit Budapest.

On my last day in Budapest, I went on a free walking tour about the history of Budapest’s monuments, which I found to be very interesting. During the tour, I learned a lot about this city’s rich and complex history, which further deepened my understanding of this place. Our tour guide was lovely and enthusiastic, and the tour was a blast. I highly recommend doing one of these tours on your first day in Budapest, as it will help you get a good understanding of the layout of the city, and your tour guide will give you great recommendations for things to do, places to see, and delicious food to eat. You can find these daily tours with the organization “Budapest Free Walking Tours”  on the steps of St. Stephen’s Basilica.  If you want to join a tour, don’t worry about signing up, just show up!

The organization offers tours about the history of Budapest, communism in Hungary, and the Jewish Quartier in both English and Spanish; just check the website to find out the schedule. And of course, remember to give your tour guide a well-deserved tip!

One of the many great things about Budapest is that the food and restaurants are super cheap, making it an ideal city for travelers on a budget. The food in Budapest was seriously amazing, and Gabriela and I truly ate our way through this city. As a result, we have lots of recommendations for must-have traditional dishes and great restaurants. Here are some of our favorite spots:

Lion’s Locker: One of the absolute best places we went to was Lion’s Locker, an adorable little cafe and breakfast spot located on a tiny side street. We were so glad that our wanderings lead us here, as the food was great and the staff were almost as sweet as the raspberry jam “Hungarian crepes” that I had for breakfast.

Espresso Embassy: If you’re searching for the perfect coffee shop, look no further than Espresso Embassy. I swear, I had the best chai tea latte of my life there, (which is really saying something as I’m quite addicted to them and tend to order one everywhere I go.)

Hummus Bar: On a tight budget, but still craving something delicious? Try Hummus Bar, a super cheap yet very healthy and insanely good hummus and falafel restaurant. This place is quite popular in Budapest, and you can find their different locations all around the city.

Làngos: Another great option for travelers on a budget are langos, a super-not-good-for-you-but-so-good traditional fast food made of fried dough, sour cream, copious amounts of cheese, and vegetable or meat toppings (A bit like a deep-fried pizza!) If you’re looking for something cheap and quick for dinner, try a langos food truck. So unhealthy, but so delicious! Just a warning: Food truck langos can be a bit difficult to eat with your hands sometimes, and can result in sour cream ending up all over your face and pieces of cheese spilled all over you: This is probably not the best option for first-date food.

If you’re craving langos but want to feel a bit fancier, try the Langos Papa restaurant. It’s just as delicious, but with toppings like arugula, goat cheese, honey, and walnuts, it feels a bit more gourmet.

Another great restaurant, located just a few doors down from Langos Papa, is a traditional Hungarian restaurant called Kantin. There, we tried some traditional dishes like goulash, creamy mushroom soup, paprika mushroom noodles, cottage cheese dumplings, and cherry strudel, all of which were incredible.

Karavana Food Truck Market: Located in the Jewish Quarter, this lively food truck market is perfect for a casual night out. Here, you can find lots of different kinds of cuisine: everything from traditional Hungarian dishes to french fries and burgers. (Or, the perfect combination of the two: Langos burgers!) My personal favorite was a food truck called Las Vegans, which offered delicious vegan veggie burgers and healthy fruit and vegetable smoothies.

Szimpla Sunday Farmers' Market: You can also find this awesome farmer’s market every Sunday morning in the Jewish Quarter. Located in an old “ruin-bar,” this was without a doubt the hippest, coolest, and the most interesting market I’ve ever been to. Gabriela and I came here for breakfast after mass on Sunday morning and ended up spending hours here. There are lots of stands with fresh, local vegetables, freshly baked bread, cheese, mouth-watering pastries, and traditional Hungarian cuisine. At the ruin-bar counter, you can also find coffee and tea, of course. The tables set up in the courtyard in the back make it the ideal place to grab breakfast or lunch, try some delicious food, and get lost in conversation.

The Great Market Hall: If you want to go to a market on a day that’s not Sunday, try the Great Market Hall. Here, you can also find lots of vegetables, meats, and yummy pastries. This is also a great place to pick up some souvenirs, gift, and postcards. However, speaking honestly, the Great Market Hall doesn’t come close to the Szimpla Sunday Farmers' Market. After hanging out in that adorable, picture-picture market, the Great Market Hall, unfortunately, felt a little bit underwhelming. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth a visit! 

Gelarto Rosa: For some dessert, try the Gelarto Rosa gelato shop. The rose-shaped treats are almost too beautiful to eat, but oh-so-delicious. Located right next to St. Stephen’s Basilica, you can enjoy your treat on the church’s steps or by one of the fountains in the square. 

Chimney Cakes are another popular dessert that I highly recommend. These pastries are made of dough, cinnamon, and sugar, or chocolate, and are baked in a cylinder shape with a hollow center. When you pull a piece off, the cake begins to unravel and resembles a slinky toy. Cool, right? A cinnamon and sugar chimney cake was the perfect afternoon snack for Gabriela and I after we got caught in an unexpected rainstorm and were in need of some warmth and cheering up.

My journey to this city was nothing short of magical. I left this city feeling in love, deeply moved, and closer to my family’s heritage than ever before. I boarded my return flight to Paris with a happy heart, dreaming of my next trip to Budapest; I can’t wait to come back to this city and learn even more. I feel so proud to say that my family comes from this beautiful and fascinating place. Thank you for everything, Budapest!

[imagitory]

Readers of Harry Potter and the Lack of Lamb Sauce,

I come to you needing some assistance.

Recently I stumbled upon a post here on Tumblr stating that the user had found one of my chapters, as well as the comments underneath, to be full of “vicious, intense, casual racism.” I am not above constructive criticism (I actually appreciate it), and I was deeply troubled by the thought that I’d hurt somebody with anything I had written. Considering it was a blog post and not a review, I sent the user a message via Tumblr chat. I figured talking the matter over personally and privately would allow me to take in the person’s point of view, hopefully reassure them of my intent, and try to mend what had been hurt. The next day I received a link to the user’s new blog outside of Tumblr with a public response to my private message. Although I was a bit disheartened that we could not have a private discussion rather than a debate, I still tried to address the concerns. You can read the entire exchange if you wish here.

I do not write this blog post, my readers, to ask you to defend my honor, or even to take my side. What I aim for is understanding, for if I’ve truly written something offensive, I need to understand the issue at hand. I’m well aware that I have my own biases – as everyone does – but I have tried very hard to be sensitive about cultures that are not mine, and in this situation I feel like there’s a piece missing from my understanding.

The user, zenolalia / @fangasmagorical, in part, said this:

While I do think that it’s a bit less-than-ideal to present a child trying to act within the dietary restrictions of her heavily, heavily maligned religious and racial minority as “cheating,” my issue was very much not with the fact that the characters within the story (such as Dumbledore) treated her as cheating. In fact, I think that’s a very realistic thing for them to do. Rather, that at that point in the story there was not indication in the narrative itself that this treatment was unfair. There was a strong implication that her disqualification was legitimate and deserved. The excuse given is that she should have simply asked for an exception to be made. But, that’s a completely unrealistic expectation to present on a child of color who has, especially in the UK in the 90s, definitely been subjected to extensive racism surrounding her religion. Indeed, canonical to the books, the exclusive celebration of Christian holidays in a school that pre-dates the wide spread adoption of Christianity in the isles is, itself, strong evidence that she would have experienced a lot of this racism. So, of course, her not asking for an exception is totally within reason and a strong character choice. Just like having the judges treat her as a cheat is also a strong and reasonable character choice.

(…)

The thing that burns me the most is, it would be a very, very easy fix to make. A single line tucked somewhere in the narration that indicates that although the judgement is reasonable (in that there are reasons for it), it is not necessarily just, would be enough. Anything that indicates that the racism of the scene is known.

From what I understand, they wish that I had (to borrow a phrase) called a spade a spade and used narrative description to confirm that Arjuna was the victim of racism. The concern I have is this – as I said in my comments, I deliberately wanted to write a world where people of color are not treated like maligned minorities, and the rules of prejudice are different among witches and wizards than they are among us. Rather than racism, the main source of prejudice – like in the books – is blood purity. There are also touches of prejudice against different species like house elves and LGBT+ prejudice because their life style wouldn’t jive with the Death Eaters’ image of a Pureblood family with seven kids, but there’s practically no racism among witches and wizards. Even in J.K.’s flawed portrayal, we don’t get much evidence of racism – Lee Jordan, Dean Thomas, Cho Chang, and the Patils aren’t treated differently than their classmates for their race…Blaise Zabini is even one of those promoting prejudice against Muggle-borns. Perhaps someone like Bridget (or even Hermione, if you like headcanoning her as black like I do), who grew up among Muggles, would know the prejudices of our world as we do, but Arjuna was raised in an entirely magical household, in a world where the President of the MACUSA in the 30′s and the British Minister of Magic in the 80′s were both black women. And considering I purposefully wanted to write a world without institutional racism (at least in regards to race: I have referred to such a prejudice against Muggle-borns), I’m afraid I don’t see what would be gained from saying that the judges – when they disqualified Arjuna for cheating – were targeting her for her religion. At one point the idea that Arjuna wouldn’t have felt comfortable enough to come forward came up, but I don’t know of anything I’ve written that would’ve signaled that. She had been the best of the chefs and just about everyone had considered her more than capable of winning the competition – her decision process came down more to her pride making it hard for her to ask for help. I can’t help but think of media like Avatar: The Last Airbender and the new Star Wars films, where there are characters of color but there are different rules about how those cultures interact with each other. Finn is a black Stormtrooper, but the only prejudice he experiences in his universe is for being a Stormtrooper, not for his race. Katara, Sokka, and the Southern Water Tribe are treated badly by the Fire Nation, but it’s not because of their race – it’s because they’re a territory the imperialistic Fire Nation is exerting control over. Even when there are parallels to the real world, those fictional worlds still have their own rules.

Now of course, some real world parallels are relevant enough that they could still be offensive even if the rules are different from our world. J.K. got a lot of blow-back for saying every witch and wizard, including Native Americans, would attend Ilvermorny, which is a bit insensitive when Native Americans have a history of being forced to attend American schools far from home. Gay characters are so often martyred without proper development or as soon as they find romantic happiness that people understandably get upset when one is written that way. Jewish and gay coding on villains is still something people talk about. If this is an issue of that – as in many Hindu people or even Indian people experience discrimination specifically for what they eat – then I want to learn more about it and address that. My best experience with something like this are Jewish people eating things that are kosher or, in a looser example, Morman Elders, when they’re on missions, being unable to be inside a home without another male being present – because not everyone that follows a religion will necessarily follow every code to the letter and not everyone will be thoroughly enlightened about every religion’s code, sometimes one must bridge the gap. (Particularly when in this situation, the judges would’ve had no reason to know about Arjuna’s dietary restrictions – the only one who’d known her for any length of time was Dumbledore, and I can’t see him memorizing every student’s eating patterns when the Hogwarts house elves are responsible for every meal.) And as much as some cultures may feel pressured not to speak up on certain things, it doesn’t make cheating the right or moral choice, and in this situation that wasn’t even an issue at play.

I wrote this to explain my position so that hopefully I can get the feedback needed to approach this issue. If any of you were likewise troubled by what I wrote or have any other insight, please reply or whatever to this post, if you’d like. And if anything I’ve written has upset you, then you can always message me here on Tumblr, start up a Tumblr chat, or even just leave a review on my story. I will always read what you’ve said and I will not get angry. Even when I end up disagreeing, I always try to take in every bit of feedback I receive and try to use it to become a better writer, and I‘ve been so grateful for the constructive criticism I have received over the last year amongst the praise. At one point early on, I cited Ayer’s Rock as the site of the Australian Ministry of Magic in a montage scene talking about world travel. Not long later I received a review from an Australian fan explaining to me the history of Uhuru and why my artistic choice, made in the heat of the moment while I was writing three chapters in a week, was insensitive and gave me a suggestion on a location I could use instead, the Nullarbor Plain. I immediately changed it, not only because I realized how much I should have taken my time and done my homework, but because her idea ended up being so much better than my original concept. I later applied the lesson I’d learned when I had to do research for a character with autism, and I took almost an entire month researching American and Native American history before writing about the MACUSA and introducing a new character who was a half-Native American wizard. I’m not above improvement or reproach, and everything I learn I try to integrate into who I am. But I cannot learn if I don’t understand.

This is undoubtedly an emotionally charged issue and I truly don’t want to create controversy or hurt anyone. If this were a story set in our Muggle world, I would do everything I possibly could to address the racism, sexism, and homophobia that infects our world, and even in this fictional universe I try to slip in plenty of commentary wherever I can. I know we’ll all have our own opinions on the matter, but if any of you have been kind enough to read all of this and have anything to add, I would appreciate it. I only aim for improvement, both for myself and for my writing, and I hope that even if I have disappointed any of you with my sentiment, you at least feel my sincerity in that.

Thank you.