#and finding out now that sure enough no it was more about white people's racist assumptions

[duckprintspress]

my understanding of the new information on the Hugos fiasco.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

I think a lot of what's currently informing my fellow white people curdling like milk and shitting their pants when asked to interrogate their relationship with rap is the way many people (especially well-meaning white people) still can't help but think of racism as something that you get accused of rather than something that influences the entire world in pernicious ways.

like, I think a lot of people currently posting the most cringe takes about rap right now would very much agree that Racism Is Bad and probably even acknowledge that rap has been and is still widely maligned and devalues for racist reasons.

but that last step, acknowledging that your personal tastes and interests are also influenced by systemic racism, is where a LOT of people stumble. it's very easy to assume that because you consider yourself against racism, then your tastes and interests cannot possibly be at all informed by racist. if you're a white American, that's simply extremely unlikely to be true.

speaking from personal experience, I had to Work to decenter whiteness in my media tastes. when I was like 19 I listened to a podcast where a white Jewish man talked about keeping a spreadsheet of the books he read to make sure he was reading a roughly equal number of men and women, and I started doing the same thing to track how many authors of color I was reading. at the time I took pride in my belief that I was reading diversely, but when the year ended I was shocked to discover that people of color had written barely a quarter of the books I'd read. I had been giving myself way too much credit while still unintentionally prioritizing white authors, because white authors were the ones I knew best. so I started making an extremely conscious effort to seek out books by authors of color, both fiction and nonfiction, that sounded like my kind of shit.

music was extremely similar. I grew up a little white girl in a very white city in a very white state; nobody was offering me an education in rap or r&b or soul or hip hop. as an young adult there were definitely some Black artists I liked, like Janelle Monáe, but I had to take the initiative of seeking out more artists to find out who I fuck with. you're not going to like everybody, which is fine, but are you even giving anyone a chance? are you even looking?

racism has roots everywhere, bro. it's not enough to just acknowledge it, you have to actively get digging.

[artificial-transmutations]

The wedding getaway

A mile in each other's shoes

"Oh, come on, you can't be serious."

Lance groaned and looked at Lisa, the bride's maid, who in turn didn't appear all that amused either, although for different reasons. She smiled a sweet and poisonous smile as she answered.

"Yes, I am, Lance. Dead serious. Apparently, you have no idea how difficult it is to find a hotel with enough free rooms on a Caribbean island in the middle of spring break."

Before Lance could answer anything, she continued with a sharp voice.

"Or how expensive. So, yes, I'm afraid you have to share your suite with one of the other singles for the duration of your all-inclusive stay. Deal with it."

Lance took a deep breath and fought down the urge to say something very inappropriate. Lisa was probably right, and he wouldn't die from having to share a room with one of the other guests for a few days. He would only go there to sleep, anyway.

"Ok, ok. No need to explode like that. So, who will be my... roommate?"

In an instant, Lisa had a list in her hand and looked at it until she found the name.

"Let's see... that would be Jamal, who also didn't arrive with a date. I trust the two of you know each other?"

"Jamal? Oh god, no! Why do I have to room with the n... with him? Isn't there any other option?"

Lance couldn't believe it. Jamal, really? Of all the guest, he had to endure Jamal?

"No." Lisa said firmly. "And now, if you excuse me, there are a thousand other places I need to be right now. Have fun and try to get along with your roommate, ok? I'm not gonna make any changes."

With a flip of her hair, she walked away.

Lance was fuming as he fingered the keycard to his room. This had to be a bad joke. Jamal and him... Let's say they never got along really well. And ‘never’ was quite a long time for them, actually. They've known each other since kindergarten and didn't get along very well even then, although they had arguably be friends back then. But ever since, their relationship became worse.

It wasn't Lance's fault, of course. That much was certain, he decided, as he drew the card through the door sensor. Jamal was just so...

The door opened and revealed the object of his disdain.

Black.

There was hardly any way to phrase it differently, Jamal had the unmistakable dark skin color of a dirty ... Black man. Lance didn't consider himself a racist, but the fact was that people who weren't white were less civilized, that was just the way it was.

"Lance."

Jamal's voice was just as dark as his skin as he glared at Lance. Unlike Lance, Jamal most definitely was racist. He was proud of his heritage and thought very lowly of Lance, no doubt because of his skin color. If things were allowed to continue like that, people like Lance would surely become even more oppressed by people like Jamal. He closed the door behind him.

"Yes, that's me. Do you have a problem with that?"

He approached the other man like a predator until he stood right in front of him. They were about the same size, and Lance could see the dark wide nostrils of the other guy flare.

"Yes."

Jamal spat the word.

"I do. What are you doing here, you white piece of trash?"

Lance gritted his teeth.

"What are you doing here, you filthy ni-"

Jamal's fist flew before Lance could finish the word and it was only due to the fact that Lance expected the hit that he could dodge and thus avoid having his teeth bashed in. He answered with a quick kick to the balls, and the two men began their brawl.

The fight was short and intense, but neither of them managed to seriously hurt their opponent. At the end, they sat at different sides of the large double bed, breathing heavily.

"Fuck."

Lance spit out a blood drop. Jamal had a surprisingly hard punch.

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

Jamal was massaging his wrist, and Lance guessed that his jaw would bruise pretty badly. He was more than surprised, however, when Jamal offered him his hand to help him up.

"It's no use, Lance. It looks like we're stuck together for the next few days, and I've got better things to do than beat your racist ass every time I go to my room. Truce?"

Lance considered the proposition for a few moments, before he nodded and grabbed the dark hand.

"Truce. At least as long as we're stuck in this room with each other, you fucking monkey."

A moment of silence followed before Jamal got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. From inside, he mocked Lance again.

"You know, Lance, you really need to learn how to control your racism. I bet the only reason why you're so angry about me is the fact that I have a big dick."

"Oh, shut the fuck up, asshole."

These were going to be a few long days. The wedding wouldn't be for another two days to give everyone time to enjoy themselves a bit. Originally, Lance had looked forward to this opportunity, but now it seemed like these days were going to be more of an ordeal than anything else.

Of course, there was no way he was going to sleep in the same bed as Jamal, and, luckily, Jamal agreed on that without argument and moved his stuff to the couch. They didn't speak a single word to each other this evening, and Jamal left the hotel room shortly after, allowing Lance some time alone. He was still bruised up and dirty from the short fight and took the opportunity to take a shower himself.

The water was somewhat soothing, and slowly, Lance regained his composure. He certainly wouldn't let someone like him spoil his vacation, and perhaps Jamal was right, and it was a good idea to just ignore each other as much as possible. He could live with that.

When he was sufficiently clean and calm, he left the shower and reached for a fresh towel, only to see a small article of clothing fall from the rack.

With some disgust, Lance noticed what it was: A piece of underwear, a pair of boxer briefs to be exact. It was previously worn, and Lance had no doubts who the owner was. Jamal must have forgotten it when he took a shower earlier.

Lance tried to ignore the unwanted textile as much as he could, but his eyes kept returning to it. Truth be told, it wasn't all that small. In fact, especially the pouch area was rather large, and the fabric looked like it had been stretched somewhat. Without really wanting to, Lance had picked up the piece of underwear and inspected it from all sides now. Frustratingly enough, what Jamal had said earlier appeared to be true. If this piece of underwear was any indicator, then Jamal's dick had to be fairly huge.

That only angered Lance further. Who did Jamal think he was, with his stupid large penis, mocking him? Did Jamal think he could impress him with that?

The piece of clothing had a slightly damp feeling to it. Most probably it was because of the steam from two showers, but was that really all? His body acted on autopilot when he brought the foreign item of clothing closer and sniffed. It was a bit musky, that was for sure, but he wasn't quite sure yet. He buried his nose in the front part of the pouch, right where the dick had been before and took another deep breath.

Oh, there it was. Definitely, Jamal's scent was embedded in the fabric, and the smell was stronger now. Lance felt a rush of shame and anger. Did he really smell the underwear of his black temporary roommate? That was disgusting. He was just about to drop the garment, when he noticed something else. His own -rather small- dick stood proudly at attention.

"What?" Lance said out loud? He was hard because of a man’s underwear? No, not just any man’s. Jamal's, his arch enemies if he had any.

No, this had to stop. With a quick motion, Lance pulled the underwear over his legs and left the bathroom.

Only when he pulled on his pants over the baggy and mostly empty cloth that concealed his erection, he took note of what he had done. Why had he put on the thing?! Well, now it was too much of a hassle to change that, he decided and closed his pants, pressing the damp sweaty fabric against his groin.

Luckily, Jamal didn't come back until late in the night, when Lance was already asleep. He half noticed the other man getting settled on the couch, but he was too tired to care.

When Lance woke up the next morning, he was covered in sweat and his boxers were uncomfortably tight. He groaned as the memories of the day before came back. A quick glance confirmed: Yep, the black man was still there, on the couch, and still asleep, as it seemed.

With a throb, his cock demanded attention under the sheets. It had been quite a while since he had woken up with such a severe case of morning wood, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He wasn't alone, after all. He couldn't resist, however, to reach down under his sheets to readjust himself.

Only when he felt the unfamiliar fabric, again somewhat wet, by his own sweat and precum did he fully remember. Right, for some reason, he had put on Jamal's underwear after the shower. And later, when he went to bed, he hadn't fixed his mistake. There was something else, though.

Lance carefully felt the outline of his cock. This wasn't right. The stolen underwear pouch was filled to the brim with a throbbing organ entirely unfamiliar to him. This wasn't his cock! It was much, much too large!

However, every touch on the large piece of flesh felt good, and he couldn't resist stroking the length stealthily, if only a few times. Why did this feel so good? Lance failed to fully suppress a moan, and saw Jamal stir in his sleep. He really had to stop this. Only perhaps one or more stroke.

Were before, when rubbing one off, he often resorted to only using three fingers to stimulate his length due to his tools size. Now, however, he found that his whole hand was unable to fully close around the shaft, and there was a lot of space for his hand to move up and down, too.

He threw Jamal another glance, but the unwanted roommate still seemed to be asleep. Perhaps he could continue just a bit longer, and perhaps pick up some speed...

This time, too, he failed to muffle his moan completely.

"Ahh, fuck, yes..."

He breathed as he pumped the thick organ faster and faster, using his other hand to caress his balls through the underwear, which felt unusually large as well. Not being able to keep it down any longer, he pumped faster and faster, through Jamal's underwear, until, with a loud groan, he shot a generous load into the fabric.

Lance saw stars for a moment, but the noise had apparently been enough to wake up Jamal, and he turned around on the couch and remarked with a sleepy voice filled with annoyance.

"Dude, what the fuck? Did you just jerk off?"

"Uhh, no. I was... not."

"Yeah, right. And I'm the president. What the fuck, dude? Couldn't you wait until I was gone or something?"

Jamal groaned and got up to go to the bathroom. As he was walking, Lance got a short glimpse at the other man’s groin for the first time. If one thing was for certain, his dick wasn't as large as Lance had suspected. Most of the front of Jamal's boxer briefs was obviously empty.

Jamal spent a surprisingly large amount of time in the bathroom, and when he emerged again, he was - as far as Lance could tell - pale as if he had seen a ghost. He didn't speak a word as he quickly got dressed and basically fled the room, leaving a puzzled Lance behind. What had gotten into that guy again? He shook his head and, finally, removed the sheets and pulled down his borrowed boxer briefs.

And then, he looked at his crotch dumbfounded. He had been right. It wasn't his dick, even though it was flaccid again now, it was much too large. However, that wasn't the biggest problem. Despite being too big, it was decidedly... Black.

And it wasn't just his shaft that was suddenly dark skinned. His balls, too, and the rest of his groin as well. When he turned in front of the mirror, he realized that even his ass-cheeks were a rich dark brown color now, and his pubes dark and wiry.

Lance's head was swimming. What in the world was going on? Was it an infection?

No, even a guy as biased as Lance knew that dark skin was not a disease you got infected with. He simply had no explanation for what he was seeing. Luckily, only his groin was affected. Both his legs and his torso were still as white as they were supposed to be. And his face was fine, too.

Lance shook his head. He'd have to get to the bottom of it, but that had time until later. Today, he wanted to enjoy the beach a bit. However, as he tried to put on his swimming trunks he noticed a problem with his new anatomy. Neither his swimwear nor his pants would fit without being extraordinarily uncomfortable. Not wanting to cut off the circulation to his now much larger tool, he glanced over to Jamal's suitcase. Judging by the pair of boxer briefs, Jamal's stuff should be about the same size, even though Lance didn't really understand why the other man brought clothes this big.

After rummaging through Jamal's belongings for a bit, Lance found what he was looking for. A pair of swimming trunks and a pair of pants that fit comfortably as he put them on without a second thought. He briefly considered fully dressing from the other man’s trunk, but decided against it and took socks, shirt and sunglasses from his own stash.

Finally, fully equipped, he went to the beach.

Given the time of the year, it was rather full, just as he had expected it to be. Nevertheless, he found a spot to lay down a bit and sunbathe, and soon, the warm rays had him relaxed.

For a while, nothing happened. Lance felt at peace, and his thoughts returned to the morning events. He was no stranger to masturbating, but it was the first time that he had felt the urge to do so while in the same room as another guy. Even stranger though, he didn't feel particularly ashamed about it anymore. So, what if Jamal had seen him? He certainly jerked off, too. Put aside all the obvious things that separated them, that was one thing they had in common. They were both men, and men had certain needs. Nothing wrong with indulging in them, right?

In fact, in the morning sun, his thoughts about Jamal were less hostile than usual. It was really hard to be angry all the time when relaxing in the warm seaside sand.

A few hours later, Lance decided to take a swim. However, as he wiggled out of his borrowed pants, he was confronted with yet another surprise.

Apparently, the dark skin had spread. Now, the whole length of his legs was decidedly dark-skinned. Lance shook his head as if he would be able to revert the skin color of his legs like that. But it was no use: The pigment was there to stay. This couldn't possibly be natural, or even healthy! He needed to see a doctor, right now!

Half-panicking, he checked his upper body but was relieved to see that there, his skin was just as milky white as it was supposed to be, as were his feet.

Against all logic, his panic subsided. Sure, he looked ridiculous like that, but it wasn't that bad. In fact, once he managed to look past the weird color of his skin, he found his legs somewhat better looking even, packed with lean muscles. It wasn't bodybuilder level, but a whole new level of power that he never had before.

Originally, he wanted to run, search for a doctor as quickly as he could, but now, he reconsidered. He might as well go through with his plan and swim a bit in the inviting ocean. He could look for a doctor afterwards.

The water was wonderful, and the feeling of his legs powerfully propelling him through the waves was intoxicating. Lance lost track of time, and it was only when his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten all day that he turned back, all thoughts of a doctor forgotten.

He grabbed his stuff and went back to his hotel room to change, but was surprised to meet Jamal in there, when he unlocked the door.

The other man was sitting on the bed with his pants at his ankles and was furiously beating his meat. When the door opened, he quickly covered his groin with a pillow, but there were two things Lance had noticed: First, Jamal's dick was really small! And, secondly, from the waist down, Jamal's skin was colored a bright tone of pink, a stark contrast to his dark torso. There was an obvious connection waiting to be found, something really profoundly easy, but it escaped Lance persistently.

Instead, for the first time in God knew how long, Lance smiled at Jamal briefly.

"Don't mind me, just carry on. I'll just get changed really quickly."

"O...okay." Jamal replied, obviously confused about more than Lance's statement. Hesitatingly, he removed the pillow and continued his work, his eyes glued at the other man.

Since Jamal was occupying the bed at the moment, and Lance didn't want to disturb him by accessing his own suitcase, without thinking too much about it, he grabbed a new set of clothes from Jamal's: A pair of socks, pants, fresh underwear, a shirt and a baseball cap. He got dressed and nodded at the furiously masturbating Jamal again as he left the room just as Jamal came.

Dinner was somewhat strange for Lance. His upper body, arms and feet felt all strange and tingly, and below the borrowed cap, his hair felt like it was shifting and changing. He was really hungry today and was glad about the all you can eat buffet.

However, the more he ate, the more the strange feeling took hold of his head and face as well, and with it, another urge awakened. Lance's thoughts consistently went back to the picture of Jamal masturbating on their bed. Say what you want, but that white boy really had a cute body. That was something Lance had always liked about Jamal James.

Lance Lamar felt his groin get tight again. It was difficult enough to find underwear for his large black python, but when he got aroused, there was hardly anything able to contain the beast of burden.

Finally, he stood up in all of his black glory and went to the elevator. Time to see if James was still around and was up for a length of his loving boyfriends large dick up his cute tight ass.

He was.

As he left the dining hall, Lisa smiled a thin smile and changed an entry in her list. Two less troublemakers and one more happy couple for the wedding.

What a great couple, in the end! After all, racism never pays.

If you like to read about another great couple, in a magical story, perhaps check out this novel!

[liianliann]

As a transitioner, you are more afraid of AfD than muslim migration? Seems to me a terribly short-sighted view...

Ummm, I'm genuinely confused by that. Why?? Why should I be more afraid of Muslim migration than of the AfD? Like??

OK either you have no idea who the AfD is and just want to be racist, or you do know and want to be racist or you are German and siding with the AfD here.

In the last case, I'm just gonna say: Was ist eigentlich dein beschissenes Problem?

Ok but generally, I'm just gonna assume you are referring to the idea/assumption that Muslim people "hate lgbtq+ people" and so on. Which is a huge piece of bullshit.

Here's the thing: Have you ever been to a German Pride? I have, and there were many Muslim people. All of my Muslim friends are fully supporting me, are queer themselves or are amazing allies. I have never met a homophobic Muslim. Never.

But I have met racist and homophobic and Islamophobic assholes. I have met people who told me I'd go to hell and they'd laugh about that. I have met people who have disrespected personal boundaries to humiliate me, to take away my dignity. All of these were white people, Germans, to be exact.

Because most of the countries that treat Lgbtq+ as a crime are majorly Muslim, you assume that the religion is the problem. That is not the case. It is the government that has a problem with queer people, and the people who support that government. And that includes Muslims and non-Muslims.

But the people who come here either run from these governments or try to find a better life here. They do not go here because they support this and now want to hate on people.

Sure, conservative Muslims believe homosexuality is a sin. But so does the catholic church. Yet you would never tell me "Why are you more afraid of the catholic church than of the AfD?"

You are telling me I should be more afraid of people who go or even flee here and simply want to live here, bringing a beautiful diversity to our country, than of people who want to kick those people out because "eww other cultures", "eww they must be terrorists", who want to take a way the freedom of speech, who are openly faschists, who support Russias invasion, who want to destroy German Democracy, who want to take away my human rights???

I'm sorry if I don't follow but to me this is obvious.

I think the Muslim faith is beautiful. Religious faith and devotion generally is very beautiful. Different cultures are beautiful. And homophobia and transphobia are learned/taught behaviors, that can be unlearned with enough patience and kindness.

Muslims do not strive to govern our country and tell us how to live our lives. I let them be, they let me be, all fine. ( I know there are extremists who fall out of that statement but they are a different case all along) The AfD wants to actively forbid medical treatment for people like me, wants to take our rights and make out lives unnecessarily harder.

Tell me now: of who should I be more afraid?

[rubberduckyrye]

I really wanna hear your thoughts on the racism with Angie, I may not have been in the fandom for like 5 years now, but I have ALWAYS been so bothered by how she and Gonta are treated by the narrative and fandom back then but nobody wanted to talk about that back then too, so it's been refreshing seeing it brought up by you.

Honestly I've been screaming about Gonta ever since I got into the fandom--like, back in 2018? Angie I've known for a while her story was a bunch of racist stereotypes but as a pastey pastey white person, I wasn't sure how much I should speak on it. I started talking about it more casually on my blog at first, and now I'm just screaming it into the void because everyone keeps ignoring or dismissing me about it.

I'll start off by saying that the extent of her racist caricature was really brought to my attention by my partner Celest, and she pointed out the initial stereotypes that lead me to further researching on Pacific Islander cultures, Indigenous cultures, and the stereotypes that are associated with them. Even the use of "Atua", while at first glance seems to be more accurate and inclusive, is incredibly inaccurate at best, and racist at worst.

But I'm getting ahead of myself--time to wipe my hands of this once and for all and talk about the thing that the fandom doesn't want to talk about--how Angie is a racist stereotype of Indigenous and Pacific Islander cultures.

I'm gonna need a lot of resources for this one.

So the biggest problem with Angie is how she is characterized/heavily coded to be Native Hawaiian/an indigenous Polynesian young woman. While I can't find any specific articles about specifically Indigenous Polynesian stereotypes regarding it, I know for a fact that the "Merciless Indian Savage" applies heavily to native/indigenous Polynesian cultures just from the horrible media I was subjected to as a child by my own father. Of course I was never taught about how racist it was until I learned it for myself, but I've seen many a movie where Pacific Islanders, specifically indigenous, were portrayed as savage, violent subhuman cultures that horrifically sacrificed human lives and blood.

I can't tell if this just, isn't well documented or I'm bad at finding research material, but I have first hand experience seeing this stereotype in modern media, so I know it's a thing. Like in King Kong movies--I remember those older movies being especially bad about it. This movie was made in 2005 and is one of the most racist depictions I've ever seen and be warned this is quite disgusting to watch with the context of this being incredibly fucking racist.

(Please remember that King Kong's island is, well, an uncharted island called Skull Island. It's an island in the middle of the ocean. Do I need to say any more as to why this is a huge problem.)

The top comments on this video are also incredibly fucking racist too:

"The natives are scarier than the big scary monster" "I would be scared of directing this scene" like Jesus fucking Christ do you people even hear yourselves.

Anyway. Yeah this movie's depiction of natives is incredibly racist and I'm sorry to subject you to this scene. I just want to specify what I mean though when I say I've seen this shit so much in media and yet I'm struggling to find people talking about it. Like, I'm not going crazy, right?

Still.

The fact that in Angie's FTEs, she bluntly describes blood and even implies human sacrifices is enough to invoke such horrible cringe from me, but the fact that her "native island" is referred to as "strange" with fauna that attack humans is also reminiscent of the racism presented for specifically Pacific Islander stereotypes.

This specific instance is especially telling, because--

If this "DeepSea" shipping service can ship just about anything--including organ meat, children, and blood--then what on earth is Angie talking about when she says they don't stock "Offerings"?

The likelihood is that she's referring to adult humans--as these children from this "shipping" company are clearly trafficking human children, blood, and organ meat. Since we know blood offerings are something from "Angie's culture", it can't be blood offering's she's referring to. Since it only lacks those two things according to Angie, that's the only thing that can be really inferred/implied--adult human sacrifices.

This is also shown here in Kaede's second FTE with her:

Angie is having a nightmare about the blood/human sacrifices necessary for her "culture" and "island", and is clearly struggling and horrified with it. This also plays into the racist stereotype in that Angie is Not Like the Other Savages and condemns her people's practices, even if only internally/privately, and portrays her as a victim of something almost cult-like--which from the clip you saw above, is still a heavily racist stereotype of indigenous cultures due to how the "Merciless Violent Savage" appears cult-like when you involve human sacrifices.

So let's talk about Atua.

This is very much only in the english version, but the use of Atua to replace "god" in a more singular fashion is incredibly inaccurate. From my understanding, "Atua" more so refers to the gods of Māori mythology. The way Angie refers to Atua in canon is more like how one would refer to a singular god. The Hawaiian Kupua, something that wikipedia seems to suggest is the Native Hawaiian version of Atua, also expresses polytheistic customs.

So yeah. the English dub made it worse.

But wait, there's more!

Now I have. No idea where this "custom" came from, as when I looked it up I just got a whole lot of nothing--but notice how Shuichi is reacting to it. The custom presented is supposed to be extremely weird and even terrifying, invoking the reader to see Angie as strange/abnormal. She continues on talking about her "island's customs", and--

The sexuality presented here is very obvious--presenting the fluidity of sexuality one might see in Pacific Islander cultures as abnormal, bizarre, or down-right wrong. A small article for this one because I cannot find the other one I originally read: 1 but the general idea is that Christan/Conservative ideology has oppressed the gender and sexuality of a lot of Polynesian cultures. To express that Angie's culture is "exotic" and "strange" for its fluid sexuality is inherently racist in nature. I don't think this is an intended character flaw--this is blatantly the bias of the writers for V3.

Now for this specific one, I've completely lost the article I read it on, so take my words with a grain of salt. However, a big stereotype of Polynesian cultures is that they are extremely carefree--something that we see Angie being in canon without her FTEs. This is portrayed as a mask by the fandom, however, so it's a bit of a sketchy one to include. Still wanted to mention it though.

Anyway--these are all things I've learned from doing research, and I still can't find a lot of information about it. Pacific Islanders/Polynesians/Native Hawaiian people are often incredibly silenced and spoken over, which is why writing this post up was so incredibly frustrating to me.

I know these stereotypes exists for these cultures--but I cannot find many resources on the subject matter.

As someone who is trying their hardest to be racially aware and sensitive, it is very frustrating to try and comb the internet to find resources to reference, and the best thing you can find is a god-damn Wikipedia page. No, really. I could not find any reliable sources on anything outside of Wikipedia. Again I could just be really bad at finding research material/it could also be that the internet is getting so much worse about finding articles on subjects like this, but I digress. The fact that it's this difficult to find things--and then to re-find things, as I mentioned earlier, some of the articles I found are just, gone now--is a testament to how much of a problem this really is.

And it's so frustrating that I keep getting silenced/ignored about the matter because I want to learn. I want to learn what stereotypes to avoid for this demographic of people and their culture. I want to learn how I can fix a character like Angie--who I DO like, by the way--and make her much less of a stereotype in my own AU. I want to learn if the Atua and the Kupua are interchangeable words like Wikipedia suggests. I want to learn for my own Native Hawaiian OC so I can write him correctly. I, as a white person who doesn't have access to this culture, want to learn about it so I can accurately portray it and help fight against the negative stereotypes that people 5 years ago thought was "great storytelling."

But I can't learn anything if the fandom keeps ignoring me because they're too afraid to acknowledge the racism is there at all, in fear that them liking a racist caricature of a character makes them racist.

And to that, I say: Please stop ignoring me. I want to learn. I want to talk to people about the subject. I want to find someone willing to talk about the culture and educate me. I can't do that if I am constantly ignored.

So. Yeah.

Sorry if this is a little haphazard, my brain died halfway through making it because finding the research materials to showcase my points was incredibly difficult. Literally have been here for hours.

I hope this can be spread around though--so people understand why it's important to have this discussion, why it's important to acknowledge the racism, and why it's so frustrating to feel silenced/ignored when all you want to do is better yourself and your own knowledge.

So... let's talk. Let's talk about the racism in Angie's character--and how we, as a fandom, can address it.

[lemotmo]

Here's a follow up

Q. The fake Twitter account story is difficult to piece together. It does appear that there was indeed a fake account, but all we have are posts freaking out over it because whoever ran the fake account deleted it after being caught. Sounds like lots of them started getting messages from people being nervous that there's been no trace of him filming these first two weeks. Several asks telling them that it's not a good sign. Sounds like whoever made the fake account wanted people to think he was on set because lots of them are starting to get nervous. And there is a growing section of them that is starting to get angry with Lou because they feel like he's 'abandoned' them to fight this fight alone. They also dropped a new mustache theory. The mustache means that either Ryan is also going to play a young Gerard in a flashback or the show is going to kind of turn Eddie into the new Gerard putting Buck in the same position Tommy was in when he was with the 118(?????). Apparently giving Buck and T their own parallel story, and of course making Eddie a bad guy. I think you're to blame for that one my friend 🤣. Your bachelor party theory made its way into their Twitter space, and as we all know that party theory makes perfect sense and is very plausible, so it caused a major freak out and now they're desperate to find their own parallel and get Eddie away from Buck 🤣🤣. Although lots of them still hate Buck now so it's confusing all the way around.

A. There isn't enough alcohol in the world to make this level of delusion even remotely understandable. Ryan is not going to play a young Gerard. Not only is that shockingly racist, Ryan is a POC and Gerard is a bigoted old white dude, but it makes less than zero sense. My god the level of ignorance and stupidity is staggering. Please don't blame me for that ridiculous parallel theory of theirs 😂. That's not something I ever want to be associated with as having any kind of responsibility for. I'm pretty sure lots of people saw the bachelor party point the minute the show released that deleted clip. It was pretty much a paint by numbers parallel. But it's understandable that it made them nervous because it's just another thing that points very clearly to the direction this entire thing is going. And it's obvious more and more of them are seeing that.

The show is not going to make Eddie a 'bad' guy. The show has no interest in or plans to separate Buck and Eddie. Just to make sure I understand, their theory is that turning Eddie into the new Gerard, and making him the 118's new enemy, will put Buck in the position of having to either stand up to him or play along with it like Tommy did under Gerard? And that will prove Tommy and not Eddie is the one for Buck? These people are costing me brain cells by the minute. I absolutely cannot take any part of this seriously. Tommy was just an ass, people. Deal with it.

Lastly the fake Twitter account is just shockingly sick. They don't have signs he's been on set because he hasn't been filming. He isn't part of the 118, or the fictional 119. His involvement, if any, will be minimal. He will maybe make a handful of appearances. And Oliver, Ryan and the rest of them won't care and won't make a big deal out of it. No matter how much his fans bitch. BECAUSE THEY AREN'T FRIENDS WITH LOU. And I doubt Lou cares any more than they do. They are occasional costars. They don't care about him outside of that and it's fine. It's the way these kinds of things usually work. And the only war he 'abandoned' them to fight on their own is the one of their own making. He's a plot device. He was always a plot device. He was never going to be anything other than temporary. Neither we, or Oliver and Ryan are obligated to placate their delusion.

0_°

Reading these posts is like turning on the TV to watch a telenovella or soap every day. Each day there is new drama and the old drama get worse and worse.

I'm not going to add anything to this. Ali replied so perfectly to this that I don't want to taint it with my drivel.

Thanks again Nonny!

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[alluralater]

THIS IS A GENUINE QUESTION

I mean no disrespect when I say this, only curiosity. I see a lot of posts (including yours) talking about things that white women do and how they act and it’s completely normalized and not seen as racist. Say someone caucasian/white were to say something about a black person, they would be told that they are stereotyping them and that they are being racist. Is it not the same? Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t equality supposed to go both ways?

Maybe I’m missing something but i’m not sure. Sending love and I hope this was okay for me to ask <3

alright this made me exhale a very long sigh but i will answer with the faith in mind that you are asking and genuinely trying to find understanding. for future reference, you can find information on this practically anywhere on your own. watch this silly but accurate thing first and then we'll talk serious.

firstly, no. racism is not a two way street between white people and those of color they systematically oppress. there is no reverse racism when the oppressed groups have no power other than the kind found and shared in their words. there is no equal footing. if a white person is standing on top of a roof and they throw rotten tomatoes down on me, it does quite a bit more damage than if i were to try and throw some UP to the rooftop. now imagine if the building they are on is a skyscraper and you'd pretty much have an understanding of why it does not work both ways.

secondly, by my posts i assume you're referring to those posted in the last day or so referencing white privilege and the lack of accountability when presented with the fact that they are perpetrating forms of harm against vulnerable groups and use their tears and victimhood as a way to get out of criticism. i would genuinely love to see a harmful white stereotype that has impacted white people enough that they walked around with people believing it to be constantly true on the basis of their whiteness. the only white stereotypes are those that have come in response to the pain white people have caused. the karen and ken, for example. white tears (specifically those shed by white people who identify with womanhood) are a weapon. you can read more on the topic in this paper. here are some relevant sections that i think are quite loud given our current conversation and discussion the last day or so.

these tears have caused great harm against people of color as well as silence people of color by essentially showcasing white people as defenseless and in need of help against terrifying forces. it sounds the alarm for sympathy and protection, usually against people of color and their criticisms. it is a learned response to avoid accountability, especially when confronted with the knowledge that they have done something to harm a vulnerable group or person. "everyone is against me" "they're all ganging up on me" etc, are things you will usually hear in this case.

minimizing the intensity of their harm is something likely to happen as well. to frame criticism as gossip or drama is a learned strategy to minimize a situation, even while crying about how hurt they are. simultaneously and falsely embellishing the magnitude of the situation to garner sympathy but minimizing any criticisms. there is no accountability or remorse, no apology. it is strategic and learned through how they navigate the world and systems which reward their victimhood, aggression, and lack of accountability. white people will often gather other people and incite a mob mentality. festering hatred within communities and pushing blame onto anyone aside from themselves. yes this is a white trait. to want all of the attention and none of the blame, to wish to be seen as delicate and powerless when criticized but not without power when it is a beneficial reminder and shield. alongside this, white people will often demand apologies from the parties they wield these tears against.

i hope you will be encouraged to do your own research on your own time and look out for things like this when you see it happen. unlearning your bias and understanding racism for what it is, is your own journey. there is a reason people of color know it when they see it, and white people often don’t.

[soshadysoquiet]

If I could re-write TUA s3 - Allison Edition

Key Allison S1 traits:

Default Rumours - her default from childhood to 1-2 years ago (max as far as I can tell) is to rumour people to get what she wants / needs. She even returns to using them when faced with the threat of Viktor despite their recent conversation

Wants to Connect - Allison wants a connection to her family, especially Viktor, but also takes the time to interact with most of the others.

Lashes out when angry - comments by Viktor

Quiet when disappointed / hurt - comments by Luther and Diego esp.

Is not trusted / respected by those closest to her over big matters: Namely Viktor and how to handle The White Violin-ness / basement - would be interested to see why people think this is, lots of possibilities...

Allison covers up things she's ashamed of / guilty of until called out - Claire's custody, her childhood rumour etc.

Allison smokes occasionally and drinks at least socially.

Key Allison S2 traits:

Again off rumours, but defaults when threatened / others are.

Has found / is still trying to connect to people - although here the show starts doing its characters massive discredit in my opinion; swapping to them bonding almost purely through experience and humour rather than words and affirmations - her scene with Luther at the BBQ is one of the few of these, but her and memory -returned Viktor defo deserved an on screen convo about this, hell they all did.

Lashes out when angry - physically now vs verbally and to the point of cruelty, such as with racist biggots (so no judgement there just observation). - Is this an upspike due to stress, or a return to form? We don't know enough about how Allison used rumours as a child to be sure.

Quiet when hurt / disappointed - with Ray following rumour convos esp.

Still not trusted / respected: How best to stop Viktor (again), Ray and her never having a reaffirming convo following their last rumour question - no shade on Ray, but is sad to see that she's still not trusted unconditionally by someone. (especially when we're later meant to believe, or, worse, Allison believes Ray was perfect. Seriously these kids are all so traumatised they need so many hugs.

Still hiding guilt / shame - her powers now mainly and past. Don't think Ray even knows she had a daughter before.

Allison now drinks when very stressed, does not smoke any more - odd choice to change this without explanation (they have an obvious get-out with her throat but, still) or is it to indicate she hasn't needed to do this with Ray in her life?

Which, sigh, leads us onto S3:

Key Allison S3 traits and where they are / aren't consistent:

Use of rumours: Oddly mixed, using them at odd times and only really severely - now I know part of this is for plot progression but Ive written my proposals below so just to bear in mind. Is now occasionally so desperate to fix things with rumours that they go into really bad territory or she's rumouring herself.

Desperate for connection - sadly now because of her trauma at this point, her attachment style becomes very anxious (with Viktor, Luther) aggressive in convo-style or deeds (with Luther, Diego, Lila) or completely despondent (with everyone else between her and Viktor in ep 2 and when she and Sloane share a moment after Luther's dad-demise.)

Lashes out when angry, ahem, yeah. Following her finding out about Claire this skyrockets. I'd say this reaction is actually pretty on-brand for her character, but I think (will go into below) that the show could have handled her having this reaction whilst doing it in a different fashion. To a point they're picking elements from the comic - where Allison does indeed rumour Luther to kiss her, but this show also isn't word for word from the comics, so I think we can alter things...

Quiet when hurt / disappointed - she frequently takes herself away to drink more / after a scathing comment / shuts herself away in room or try to rumour herself to be happy.

Still not trusted / respected by those closest to her: Viktor especially has a part to play in this this season, who just doesn't trust her with information. The rest generally brush her aside, even the Sparrows are dismissive of her. It's a lot. I know none of them listen to each other, which by this point is canonically insane (Allison's track record for good gut feelings should be more well recognised by the sibs just as much as Five's apocalypse sense always being dead right.)

Covers up her guilt / shame still - such as the Luther Business

Allison now drinks frequently from the stress and smokes again.

So, here's my reviewed S3 with the above in mind:

Stronger gut feeling that something is wrong following Sparrows in the Umbrella Academy

Less jokes, more genuine worry when they're all injured after - though increasingly distracted by need to hunt for Claire.

Claire business and Viktor's transition goes the same - though maybe she could ask one of the fam to come with her? Luther pos? Just as a thought.

The fam have the same initial non-reaction that Viktor berates them for - I'm not sure if they actually know or not / how much they know

Cafe scene can go the same way OR Allison starts quietly but then shouts 'heard a rumour you all Shut Up'/etc to stop the cacophony of noise - maybe then bolts, Harlan gets spotted etc. This begins the slippery slope of regressing back to the mean of her rumour use.

I think it's then 1st Kugalblitz meeting? Honestly when Diego is complaining about Stan initially Allison's reaction could become more 'I heard a rumour you stopped complaining about having a child'/etc [- which could then lead to an interesting Diego arc. I find it interesting that Allison doesn't interact with Stan once, in fact other than Diego and Klaus, I don't think anyone else even talks to him. Which is pretty awful when you think about it - I would like to see Allison then leave, try and bond with Stan but she just can't feel it / it's too much and she retreats again] - could then start trying to pep talk herself out of using rumours / rumour herself in the mirror.

Kugalblitz conversation - at this point Allison might be threatening rumours just to give herself that pause before a freefall 'If you don't get to the point you're getting rumoured' the fam starts to notice this change in her and are leery of it - I'd love to then see some snippets from their childhood but alas, a gal can but dream

As the season progresses, Allison's rumours become more desperate and connection-coded (rather than non-con coded, thanks for that TUA) so when they have Briefcase chat at sparrows, she rumours them to give her the briefcase (they are compelled to go with her to where it was / is - the hotel.) Viktor and her can bluster about the rumours on the way back vs following the plan 'it's not like anyone ever follows MY plans or we might not be here in the first place' could be a good take for Allison. On the way to the hotel does she try and rumour Ben into being more like their Ben / remembering?

Back at the hotel we can then have Sparrows Vs Brellies + Harlan - Fei sent some birds secretly to alert the others IDK

Then we have Sloane Vs Allison - the Interrogation grunge match. At this point Allison is done, so she just tries all kinds of rumours and Diego is a bit more cautious - gives a 'hey maybe calm it down' as he got rumoured earlier so 'I heard a rumour you backed me up for once' and he he's just saying 'I am!' Allison doesn't really notice that the rumour doesn't have much effect, for Luther's interruption he gets 'I heard a rumour you listened to me for once' and he does, and he's angry - but after it's worn off he thinks back about when he hasn't listened in the past. *This replaces her Other Luther rumour for me because I don't need to see that - I'm still half convinced it also serves a dual purpose as just a way to also show a woman getting sexually overpowered even though she'd 'asked for it' so it's completely bleh bleh bleh no either way for me and we don't need it*

Her and Diego have a convo - you know you didn't need to rumour me back there, I already have your back - Allison going into how it's felt like no one's had her back for the last year, going into the constant stress of living in Dallas, could mention 'apart from Ray, and now I've lost him too' [I'm curious here of what is more therapeutic - the racist-people-beat up at the bar or Allison actually getting a meaningful connection and sharing some of that emotion, I'd like the second to come into play to start giving her some emotional room here, but don't want to deny her and Diego some pay back, food for thought]

Five and Lila come back, Allison sees he had the brief case, possibly 'you had this the whole time?' 'did have' Allison lashes out - some cutting remark I can't think of, but leading to basically 'I heard a rumour that you actually cared!'/etc (about us / my daughter) Five just replies with 'I do' and he's pissed but as with Diego it's no different than how he was anyway

Viktor and giving up Harlan moment - Can't remember if Allison was there for that or having a moment to gather herself???

Five maybe gives her the time for one of his Awkward Gramps Bonding convos about how he does care, Allison vents a bit, he says he's trying to fix it, Allison can say she's not sure that's enough and maybe Five says 'I've wondered that all my life' or something equally sad and the two of them and Klaus share a drink and look at his peeled skin, lovely bonding. Allison there to hear that Klaus kinda died- maybe asks him to clarify, but how did you survive then? The three of them ponder, Allison reflects she has more to lose still. They all go off to the biker gang with Five bc why not. [in the bar there there's a fight and Klaus dies but comes back - Allison can try to rumour him back to live bc I love stories where she does that, Five can actually have A Reaction to a sibling dying / go on a little psycho murder spree that Pogo sees and is like oh shit they are more Reggie Kids. Allison helps rumour Five to calm down (they could have one of their comic-canon chats about his urge to kill Vs not wanting to) Klaus re-alives himself and they find out well shit he's immortal. Pogo tells them about Reggie's madness. Klaus is all - huh maybe I shouldn't have taken him off the pills then, oh well.

Back at the hotel, Viktor has snuck Harlan out to do Special Training (I've probs got the timeline a bit wrong but eh) Lets make this better by if we real need Harlan to die he can die via giving his powers back with just enough life for a Meaningful Death Convo with Viktor as he goes but Viktor still feels guilty.

Maybe the K5A tag team turn up in time for this and Klaus keeps trying to get in to stop the storm-swirl of powers (the three of them all try, trying to 'save' viktor - Allison can gain her power upgrade this way, Klaus can have a 'funny death montage' as the team realise he's the only one who can get through - this also powers Klaus up enough to banish ghosts - maybe there's a lot around Harlan from the accidents he's had. Five can, like, have a breakdown seeing Klaus re-die over and over again it finally breaks him and Allison does what she can to help.

They all go back, Five making unceremonious use of Harlan's body to appease Sparrows and Allison and Viktor having a bit of a fight now because it came out about the mothers, Klaus also upset - went to talk to dad for nothing?? Allison (to just them? to hotel?) 'I just want you to Trust Me for one god damn day!' and rumours - a number of them, well shit, now she's actually responsible for that - apologises but no no, they trust her, it's fine - we can see the consequenses of her rumours in a dif way here. Allison ashamed and they all keep turning to her for her opinion for stopping the Kugal blitz etc - she's freaking out a bit and having to employ team work - doesn't want their trust if it's blind like this but also shows that she's able to connect to them all to get the best from them - what was the math whizzes' plan - will it work Five - well I trust you Allison - and I trust you, all of you, so will it work? - this way the fam also see the trust she's able to put in them

Kugal blitz of course blows, they go to the hotel at the end, Allison thinks she's lost her chance to see Claire. Reggie being there and weird and no one listening to him save Ben.

Allison gets to go to the bachelor party and karaoke with her idiot brothers god dammit - it's a 'lets make sure Allison knows we're here for her too' moment - awkward as it is, naturally

Reggie corners Allison still, she's lost and grieving her daughter still and has had A Lot the last while. He cuts her the deal and she goes to the others, when you said you trusted me - I'm asking you genuinely to now - they go fight the Kugal - takes some convincing, Five's done and broken from all the breakdowns over Klaus dying, Klaus is actually expressing his emotions with his siblings after being angry for being withheld info from and 'I told you so' Luther just wants to get married, Ben is being Ben and her and Viktor need to re-connect a bit more than the others whilst Diego is worried about Lila- So Reggie does in Luther, Klaus, they go to Oblivion and the rest is more or less as it was except it's less agro and more Teamwork Yay we love to see it.

When Allison presses the button, the others don't fight her on it - they trust her. She presses that button with a smile - end of S3!

If you've read this far, I hope you enjoyed my Ted Talk 😂

[hertwood]

"I do find it interesting that ppl will ignore the many many times Taylor Swift has publicly supported democrats just because she was friendly to her boyfriend's coworker's wife"

the "many many times" in question being an entirely self-serving activism kick in 2019 and 2020... she hasn't even spoken up about this year's (arguably more consequential) election Imao if normal ass people can cut off their own relatives for being bigoted then white woman of the year can certainly avoid snuggling with a loud and proud racist. i'll also remind you that the "political arguments" in question that occur between trumpies and normal people directly affect the lives and safety of millions of people both in the States and abroad but okay! sure! not everyone has enough empathy to care about that! whatever!

if you want to believe taylor swift is a bad person, or not progressive enough, or a performative activist thats fine!! you don't have to like her and you also don't need to justify it with any "good enough" reason!!! you can just hate the bitch you're allowed!!!

the point i was trying to make is it is weird as hell to be making polls and speculating if she's a republican when she's endorsed joe biden in 2020 and many other democrats since 2018, it really seems like a bad faith fucking conversation to me 🤷 i think the people who are having these discussions have already decided that she's a bad person and are discounting very significant data points to present their opinions like they're reality. if you think it was self-serving activism, that is actually just your opinion :) that you are allowed to have but that does not change the objective truth that she has never been vocally anything other but liberal in her political views.

i also think its fucking weird that people who hate her so much won't shut the fuck up about her TBH!!!!!!!

also acting like i, a disabled nonbinary dyke don't know how politics affect real people?????? bitch i'm one of them. and you're right, not everyone has enough empathy to care about everything wrong with the world all the time. not everyone has the capacity to argue with every bigot they meet 100% of the time without getting burnt the fuck out. it is not sustainable and also not very effective to do! most of these crazy assholes are not gonna have their minds changed with an argument. caring for vulnerable members of our communities is a far more valuable way to spend your energy. getting young leftist people registered to vote is gonna be a much more viable strategy for change than arguing with trumpies.

i have also, for the record, been kind to bigots. so fucking cancel me too i guess. i've said hey i'm not gonna start an argument bc my siblings deserve a christmas without all that. i've heard coworkers say bigoted things and said hey i'm exhausted from the work day i dont have a capacity to deal with this right now. and if you think i'm a bad person for that? dont worry you can unfollow me i will still sleep easy at night :)

i also think it's worth mentioning that taylor swift recently had to cancel a show bc of a real terrorist threat. i personally think it's very likely she's being advised not to say anything in order to not increase risk of another tragedy like the manchester ariana grande attack. if this is true and you still think that taylor swift prioritizing the safety of herself and her fans dying over speaking up politically, thats your right to think so!! but i don't expect my faves to be activists 24/7 personally, for any reason. i dont think thats fair to expect of people who aren't politicians.

but that's just me!!!

[toboldlymuppet]

cranky fandom wank hours

It sucks that this is my post after a while of not updating art here but I have to say something about it. The level of vitriol and hate I’ve gotten as an Izzy fan (why yes, that fictional little pathetic man over on that little queer pirate show that speaks about kindness & acceptance, of growing past your trauma & toxic mentality, That One) has been 10x as worse than in any fandom I’ve been in, and I’ve been in fandom for more than a decade now. I’ve modded a fairly large game discord (at 100k+) and even then, I haven’t had death threats lobbied at me so aggressively until I got into this show. I was never shy about my anti-colonialism stance, my Filipino heritage, my sexuality or gender identity, especially having recently realized that I fall into the nb spectrum. Or all my stances on shitty IRL things that are both morally and legally reprehensible. And yet, the number of “racist/pedophile/rapist/colonizer/abuse apologist” I’ve gotten in my dms has pushed me enough to close my twitter dms & asks here, something I haven’t done at all (most especially on twitter where I’ve kept it open since 2014). People I know who enjoyed staying in our own lane & enjoying one rat bastard has gotten hate and death threats, we’ve had someone doxxed, many of us fear doxxing, I’ve been thrown into a list of ‘known rapists/abusers” for daring to do fanwork of my current favorite pirate. A lot of us fans are POC and trans and nonbinary, or somewhere around that spectrum, and yet we’ve been constantly drowned out by people who think that fandom = activism? Who act like surely it’s just a conglomerate of white cis fans who flock around Izzy. Nice, way to fuckin misgender and act like a white savior to us, oh wait, we POC/non-cis Izzy fans don’t exist, do we? Even then, so many fanwork of other POC characters on the show are by Izzy fans. Roach & Frenchie fanworks, iirc, where they’re not relegated into the side or disregarded, where they’re main characters in their own right, are primarily by us fans. We show the crew a good amount of love, and even then, if you don’t find the fanwork of a character or ship you’re looking for? Don’t attack the fans enjoying our own thing and do your own, commission an artist/writer, cultivate your own circle instead of attacking others. Izzy Hands is by far the least morally decrepit favorite I’ve gotten in many years, he’s nothing even remotely close to being ‘unredeemable’,  to apply morality to him & his fans, despite being a pirate in a fucking pirate show, totally known for their Goodwill To All Men and Upstanding Code of Ethics, is ridiculous and full of bad faith criticism. Also, can people stop tagging hate in his tag, what the fuck happened to fandom ethics or consideration, stop airing out your dirty laundry for the fans to see where we’re just here to have a good time and Stay In Our Lane. Anyway, I have a shitload of more to add but it’s 6am and I’ve frankly never been this exhausted by fandom before. This is why I’ve never done G/B stuff lol, despite having done so many wips on my initial watch. Is it cringe to have an entire vent about a sad small fictional man? Yes. But is it even cringer to focus all your time and energy into hating that guy & his fans? Also yes.

Good morning.

[drdemonprince]

Thank you for talking about the ills of isolation and withdrawing during a moment where we need collective action, whatever that may look like for each one of us.

I have been thinking a lot about how I want to belong to groups who are doing things I care about and what gets in the way of that goal. A huge difficulty I have as an autistic woman and a woc in a small town in a white majority country is that often even with people whose politics I broadly agree with, there is a lot of interpersonal unease and irritation to get through. This is probably sometimes as much my fault as theirs. But sometimes it's stuff like people openly rolling their eyes at my name (too foreign and hard apparently) or me finding some of the things they say awful (a queer rights group still being racist for example) or just finding people annoying to be around at times.

How do I show up in these spaces and create a community without burning out from annoyance/disappointment/the everyday alienation of it all? Surely moving to a big city cannot be a practical answer when it's not affordable? And surely there must be a way to be honest about my politics and stand up for myself and still be in halfway progressive spaces that are doing good work and are best options right now in terms of proximity and impact? My parents' answer (different generation, country, culture) was always keep your head down and stay out of difficult things like organizing. I am tired of living like that. But I also feel I am too angry and too unfit to deal with the everyday reality of what people are like to be able to part of movements. The alternative though is to having a panic attack while reading the news and sink into despair and helplessness which sucks. Am I missing an obvious way out here? As always, very grateful to you for your wisdom and clarity on living uncowered.

Thank you so much for your wonderful message and question. I am admittedly a little out of my depth in some ways in answering this, I feel, as a white person and a man who people don't tend to subject to the worst of the kind of treatment that you're speaking to. (What I do get is people thinking that expressing the prejudices will be acceptable to me, which I have the responsibility to shut down as often as humanly possible, so that spaces don't have a such a dogshit culture and alienate tons of people like you).

I think you do really have to look over your own bandwidth, and determine for you what is tolerable and what isn't. As a trans person, there are slightly "off" little comments that I'll accept from someone who isn't well versed in the topic, and differences in how elders talk and think about gender that I'll tolerate bemusedly, but if it ventures into any area that makes the space explicitly hostile to trans people who are more vulnerable than me, then it's something I need to fight about or I need to abandon the space.

For a woman of color like yourself, I think that kind of decision making is a lot more fraught, because frankly I never have to worry about anybody really escalating their bullshit with me too badly, and they'll want to forget it pretty quickly after the conflict even if I do challenge them.

(This propensity towards midwest nicey-ness / white person fake nicey-ness can sometimes be leveraged to win a battle or two -- when I have obviously, unquestionably shut down someone's ignorance or read them for filth diplomatically for making a really dumb point, often the other person's impulse is to backtrack and make nice or pretend that what they said never happened, while also never doing it again in my presence, and in plenty of situations, that's plenty good enough. I have seen this kind of maneuvering work for people of color too, especially in groups like churches, volunteer organizations, cultural affinity groups, and the like, where there is a strong bias towards everybody getting along...sometimes that awful cultural norm can be shifted to your advantage if you Make the Person Saying the Fucked Up Thing the Awkward One.)

I think a lot of what you'll have to do is discern between the groups where you can push back against the remarks and policies that are unacceptable to you but basically get along with well-enough intentioned people, and the groups where you will be singled out and treated poorly for speaking up or ever asserting yourself. It also really helps to befriend all the other people of color & neurodivergent people in the space early on into joining a group, so you have people to lean on and you can get their lay of the land.

I wish I had advice that was more targeted and immediately actionable, but I think a lot of this is a very subtle dance based on the community spaces you move within, your political goals, the people within the space, the norms within that space surrounding conflict, how many other poc are there, etc etc. You will probably have to try a couple of groups before you find one that is tolerable enough for you because a) the people arent That Fucked Up, and b) they can kind of handle conflict some of the time at least. Please don't be disheartened if things feel awkward or a few of your first tries have rancid vibes. You can also take steps to build the very community spaces that you want -- by reaching out to other people of color in the area and forming your own groups that can then partner with these kind of annoying white majority organizations. The autonomy is useful and may preserve some social and emotional spoons, but at the cost of having to do a lot of organizing work. So, tradeoffs.

Would love to hear in the comments from people of color who do organizing in non-urban areas and have to deal with a lot of white people nonsense.

[goodbyeapathy8]

Departure letter

As mentioned in this post, that outlines why I needed to let this be my last message in the Kindergarten Mafia Discord server... here is the Scathing Letter™. ------------------------

It is time for me to go. 

I absolutely loathe having to do a departure announcement because this is not an airport and I’m sure not a lot of people care. 

But as someone who has spent 10+ years of their life actively decolonizing and liberating my viewpoints, it would be absolutely remiss for me to not leave final remarks here expressing my utter disappointment and feelings of not being safe in this space. Not just as POC but someone chronically ill and autistic. Y’all have not made it kind for someone who has any sort of marginalized identity, as evidenced by the public dogpiling in this thread as well as the now deleted messages in clarifications.

I’m not going to address the majority of the drama except for what started it all : someone refusing a Native person’s (well-deserved) call out for a culturally appropriative phrase. 

It is devastatingly clear to me that a large portion of folks in this server have a poorly curated personal life extremely lacking in diversity. 

The defensiveness and elitism (really? Dictionary definitions?). Refusal to actively listen and instead attack others about lacking critical thinking. Self-claimed expertise. I could go on. 

So I revise what I had posted previously. Everyone is a little racist and this server is full of white supremacy tenets. 

https://rrapp.hks.harvard.edu/the-culture-of-white-supremacy-in-organizations/

This is my last attempt at educating some of you, which will go poorly, I’m sure. 

I spent an inordinate amount of time/energy/spoons to provide coherent context the last time but to find the entire thread deleted with no respect for the effort I spent there, has been one of the final straws. 

Frequently mentioning your volunteer status is frankly laughable. I have volunteered for quite a few places, including mutual aid organizations, and across multiple timezones and never have I seen so many excuses to say that y’all do not care about POC. (1/2)

I don’t care how old anyone is, what their job IRL is, what works you’ve posted with how many kudos, etc. I *do* care about the fact that multiple people, when speaking up, are treated with callousness and hurtfulness. That is a larger indication of your mental age and capacity than any other words you can type. 

That I felt safe enough to be so vulnerable in this space for a while was an illusion. There are continued indicators that POC words are ignored, especially calling out that I know both Jynx and William have requested their labor be deleted in the server but have not been. 

Last, but not least, I’m sure people will read this and think oh it’s Phoenix banding together with their friends. I say this with as much passion I can muster : I would have the same amount of disdain for the actions seen in this server without any personal friendship ties and emotions. That is how the social justice aspect of my autism works. 

You all have so much work to do when it comes to respecting other human beings that have different experiences than you. If I weren’t so consumed with the feelings of my actual divorce, recent termination, and the continued trauma of world events like that in Falasteen, I’d feel bad for you. 

As it stands, I believe my energy is precious and I simply cannot spare any more in spaces where I (and others) am not welcome or given respect to. Let it be noted that I’ve actually gone viral on social media before and I still have not left THOSE spaces and yet am choosing to leave this one. The troll comments I received on Tiktok can be ignored because they are from complete strangers that I do not give a single fuck about. The ones here, purportedly from those who claim it’s “safe”, are even more insidious in nature. 

Whatever race or ethnicity you are, to take people who have shown you their vulnerabilities and turn around to show your entire behinds in the least sexiest way ever, is not a good look. Ever. 

Leave the ass scenes to KinnPorsche. 

[jyndor]

been on this site since 2010 in one way or another and I have seen first hand the fucking expulsion of Black people and other people of color from tumblr due to the vile racist harassment they have always gotten from white people and their big followings. people wonder where so much of the large Black tumblr community went and freaks will claim that that was all just russian psyop noise.

and while I am sure there were SOME bots and psyops, my feeling is that a lot of white liberals tell themselves that the whitening and global northening of this website - which has always had a vibrant and diverse user base - over the past several years is not the work of massive amounts of racist harassment and the failure of white moderates to do anything but the usual reflexive hand wringing over semantics and tone and respectability politics, no of course not, it's that the more radical Black bloggers were mostly just russian psyops or their useful idiots, and... I guess so many of the Black fandom bloggers and aesthetic bloggers etc, they just magically decided they didn't have any interest in this site anymore right?

and indigenous bloggers, I've seen them run off here too. and of course I've seen Latine mutuals disappear, and yeah they all must have just randomly decided they'd had enough of tumblr, or they were also psyops and weren't even real people at all.

and now during a GENOCIDE I've seen palestinian bloggers, both IN PALESTINE and the diaspora, harassed into silence. I've seen them get bombarded with the most cruel harassment I have ever seen on this website, and then again the hand wringing of white moderates. and the genocide denial: the orientalist and racist smears and hack jobs and propaganda campaigns, the apologia and obfuscation and when their backs are to the wall, the mask slipping and revealing the enraged colonial vengeance from fascists that defies belief.

palestinians are doing extensive work to vet gofundmes and fundraisers, and they have been for months now. and since I follow palestinians on here I've been aware of their processes for months. and so I've donated and shared them on here, and I've seen gofundme shut very legitimate fundraisers down for whatever bullshit reason, I've seen palestinians IN GAZA have to find a way to reach out to me, just some random us american woman, on fucking tumblr and write in a language that isn't their first and apologize for bothering ME with their fundraiser that they have to have because THEY ARE TRYING TO ESCAPE THE GENOCIDE MY COUNTRY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR.

and you're telling me that some fucking white liberal allies~ are so concerned about the possibility that these palestinians and the palestinian bloggers who have spent countless hours working to get them to safety might be some sort of scam ring??? and then when the palestinian bloggers explain once again to these ~well meaning big blogs~ how they work, and what cultural/language cues these big bloggers are missing because clearly they have no cultural competency and have never met a palestinian ever (or if they have they have never been a safe person for a palestinian to speak freely around) they hem and haw and bring out the fucking "I was just so worried that well meaning people might be tricked into wasting $5 on a tumblr checkmark I mean tumblr premium I mean a billboard for some racist gay slaver pirate show wow how does that keep happening my fingers keep slipping I MEAN on a fundraiser for a family trying to escape genocide, and I would totally love to donate too! (but I haven't and I won't)."

but the damage was done - at least one palestinian blogger WHO BTW LITERALLY IS A SURVIVOR OF THIS GENOCIDE was harassed so much that he might not ever come back to tumblr, but he definitely won't ever be doing the work to vet fundraisers again, something that has a material impact on the ground - but these big bloggers recommend donating to ngos like the red cross which ??? literally palestinians and other peoples in the global south fyi have long asked people not to support over either mutual aid (in the case of gaza atm bc it is hard for aid to even get to aid workers since you know, israel fucking bombed the rafah crossing) or local organizations that are recommended by COMMUNITIES THEMSELVES, NOT BY TUMBLR USER @PATRONIZINGWHITE (that is not a real user fyi).

if I am to believe that the exodus of Black tumblr users from this site was mostly a purging of russian bots and shit, then I could believe that this was a deliberate targeting of palestinian bloggers saving actual people from an actual genocide.

but what I'm inclined to believe is that actually white people have been spoon fed so much anti-palestinian and anti-arab racism, so much orientalist paternalism and colonial white man's burden horseshit, that it was second-nature to assume that palestinians aren't actually thoughtful enough to properly vet people trying to raise tens of thousands of dollars from strangers on the internet. and that's assuming that these white tumblr users aren't more than a bit sympathetic to israel. sike they really do just hate palestinians.

rarely ever, throughout all these years, have I experienced any harassment myself. and it isn't like I don't have a moderately sized following myself, and that I haven't for a long time.

you'll notice a lot of white western bloggers are still here and have been for years. they'll complain about censorship of fanfiction.net and porn blogs and how important ao3 is to protect of queer people like me, and im not even entirely unsympathetic because again i have been here for a long time, but it's crickets when people of color on tumblr have clearly been silenced over the years.

shameful. if something had happened to any of the people with the gfms because their donations slowed down, to me that's collaboration.

here is @/el-shab-hussein's post about this situation. please read it and if you are someone who reblogged something about scam gfms or any sort of support for the misinformation campaign that these racists perpetrated about literal genocide victims, you need to do damage control on that. delete the posts, block the ops and explain the situation to your own followers.

it's inexcusable. and all in the name of preventing the spread of misinformation.

vetted Google doc: please go through it and understand that of course there is a marginal risk, it is MARGINAL.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I've relistened to Nish Kumar's 2016 and 2019 shows today. He released them both as an album abd they're both great, it had been maybe a year since I last listened to the and I enjoyed them a lot again.

I noticed something I hadn't before, which is that I've previously pointed out (and I'm sure I'm not the only person to point this out, as it's very obvious) that Nish Kumar's voice goes quite Acastrian at times, particularly when he's expressing indignation. Actually, expressing indignation is the second biggest thing that makes Nish sound most like James. The first is when he does an impression of a racist white person - that's basically a James Acaster impression, which is funny. I've called it a James Acaster impression before, but maybe that's not fair, as I think Nish has been doing stand-up for longer. Maybe James Acaster is doing a Nish Kumar impression.

So I knew that, but I didn't notice until this listen how many of his vocal mannerisms were similar to Ed Gamble. Obviously I'm more likely to notice that now, having just listened to a couple of hundred hours of Ed Gamble. And maybe I'm just imagining his influence because I've heard so much of him recently that I recognize it everywhere. But I don't think so, because I've listened to a bunch of other comedy lately and I don't think the rest of it sounds like Ed Gamble. And, you know, I sure don't think Nish Kumar sounds like Ray Peacock. I don't think anyone sounds like Ray Peacock (except maybe, for a few years before he found his own voice, Ed Gamble).

It's hard to go into detail about what the similarities are because they're such small, specific things. But they were noticeable enough to distract me a bit while I was listening, stopping to think, "That word 'yes' was very Gamblian of you, Nish."

I saw Nish Kumar's 2024 show (live, in the room, for once) a couple of nights ago, and nothing there reminded me of Ed Gamble. Or of Janes Acaster, for the matter. I think similarities were more significant earlier in their careers. I've only noticed it because I just listened to many hours of 2014 Ed Gamble, and then to some 2016 Nish Kumar, and there is a lot of crossover there in the way they deliver certain words.

I just find that interesting, the way you can map people's influence on each other. I don't say any of this as a bad thing, to be clear. Not accusing anyone of intentionally ripping off each other's styles, they're not doing each other's actual material. It's just the little things in how people start to talk like each other if they spend enough time together. I can hear similar crossover in early Chocolate Milk Gang stuff, particularly Daniel Kitson and John Oliver. Oh, and Nish Kumar had some turns of phrase around 2013 that were, to be honest, pretty much ripped directly off Zaltzman. He's got that down to just a vague sense of influence these days.

Anyway, the point is that Nish Kumar's double album, It's in Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves, containing his 2016 and 2019 shows, is great value. Held up on a relisten. The 2019 one reminded me that Nish didn't just start talking shit about Ricky Gervais in 2022, he's been doing that for years. Good for him.

[voidoftheuniverse]

I think there's a lot of misinformation on punks and the punk community as a whole so as a young newbie punk who is learning about the punk community and how it effected history I feel like I should clear up a few things.

Punk is NOT an aesthetic.

It's a form to rebel against the cruel and unjust government and is supposed to be a way of standing out and expressing yourself while also making aaaaalll the right people PISSED.

Another thing is that punks aren't as voilent as you think they are. I've seen people and media depict punks as voilent, disrespectful and scary indievuals but if you actually meet a punk you'll see that, they're just people like you and me. They're human with enough bravery to fight for what's right.

Third, lace code isn't super revalent and is pretty outdated so you don't really need to learn it and follow it buuuut if you're in a larger area and there's alot of punks, yeah it's pretty important.

Yellow means you're anti-racis

White means you're a white supremacists

Red means you're a n*zi

Purple means gay pride

Blue means you've killed a cop (please don't do this you'll NEVER find someone with blue laces now and days)

And I'm pretty sure green means non-racist..

Please if you wanna learn more do your own research and speak to punks and 'elder punks' to know more! Again I'm still new to this community so if any punks wanna come over and share some more info feel free to do so!

Help us break the stereotypes by rebloging and sharing with your friends! and bring punk BACK AND LOUDER THAN EVER!

[delta-queerdrant]

too much television watchin' got me chasin' dreams (Initiations, s2 e2)

I had a wild and extremely distracting August, but I am back, with no shortage of episodes in the hopper in need of my lovingly critical attention.

This time it's "Initiations"! Prior to now, we've only had two Chakotay episodes - "State of Flux," which introduces the Seska of it all, and "Cathexis," in which the poor guy spends the entire episode in a coma. So "Initiations" is a welcome, if flawed, opportunity to spend some more time with a generally underutilized and mishandled character.

There's a lot to like about this episode! It's not overly sentimental - instead, we get the kind of tense, understated cultural exchange that Star Trek is known for. Aron Eisenberg gives a sympathetic performance as the young Kazon-Ogla, and Chakotay brings a plausible mix of calculation and exasperation, as well as warmth, to their interactions.

While I have, ah, GRAVE issues with the Kazon, I was surprised and a bit pleased to see that their social structure is portrayed as culturally contingent and not biologically essential.

Buuuut yeah, let's talk about the racism of this show.

About halfway through Season 2, it became impossible to ignore that the STV co-creators were attempting a painfully on-the-nose race parable with the Kazon. I did some digging and, sure enough, the creators are on record explaining that the Kazon were inspired by "the Crips and the Bloods." To quote Jeri Taylor more fully, "We felt with the Kazon we needed to address the tenor of our times and what […] was happening in our cities and recognizing a source of danger and social unrest. We wanted to do that metaphorically."

👀

Even looking back from the rocky terrain of 2023, it's a bit baffling to contemplate how shameless white SF creators were in the nineties. They decided to use their goofy science fiction television show to exercise their white Boomer "war on crime" anxieties and they were proud of it! They wrote about their creative process in books. They used "Crips" and "Bloods" as stand-ins for the Kazon sects in their working notes. They gave them those goddamn wigs.

With all this in mind, it's hard not to watch this episode and hear "Gangsta's Paradise" in the background, a la Michelle Pfeiffer. Star Trek "races" have always been steeped in racist caricature, but it's egregious here, and as much as this episode attempts kindly, slightly condescending cultural relativism, it can't escape its own white gaze.

The result is shitty science fiction. We know, from US history and the history of other slave and colonizer states, that self-emancipated people do not uniformly descend into anarchic factionism as soon as they find freedom. The challenges of the postcolonial/post-emancipation state aren't the dangers of too! much! power!, but of material deprivation, cultural loss, generational trauma, and the reemergence of old forms of systemic oppression under new guises.

It's unfortunate, because we do need science fiction about post-emancipation and postcolonial futures. The Kazon's distaste toward "uniforms" is the one compelling aspect of their culture - I want more of that, and some acknowledgement of what their freedom means to them. Where are the Kazon philosophers? Where are the teachers and poets? Where are the visionary freedom fighters - they only revolted 26 years ago! Where the FUCK are the women? Voyager's creators had every opportunity to investigate these questions and, if nothing else, flesh out the story they wanted to tell. Are the Kazon rival polities (fighting over what?), organized criminals operating in some larger economic context, or something else entirely? Asking these extremely basic questions might have enabled them to decouple political questions from racial stereotypes.

It's notable that the Voyager casting director, perhaps losing their nerve, seems to have cast exclusively white actors for Kazon roles (compare to the at least somewhat multiracial Klingons). I wouldn't wish these roles on any Black actor, but the resulting character designs can't help but read as brownface.

My purpose in this cultural criticism is not just a takedown of a 30-year-old television show (though it's a satisfying takedown), but that (a) our culture is steeped in this stuff and (b) glaringly obvious anti-Black racism was treated as invisible by the white mainstream and (c) they could have done better. Most obviously, they could have had BIPOC writers in the writing room, but let's be clear, white writers should have known better. To my knowledge we still don't have antiracist Star Trek, but "less egregiously racist Star Trek" was within grasp in 1995 and these folks just couldn't be bothered.

Deeply flawed premise, decent execution. 2/5 uniforms that may yet decorate my walls.