#immigration adjacent

[andtheirmoonlight]

The new ‘strategy’ is depressing, but I’d have accepted it for lack of anything better — if only the new desktop version wasn't there. The new desktop interface is unusable and anxiety-inducing, and I don’t think we’re getting the old one back. I’d be happy to be wrong about it, but.

For now, I open tumblr and I want to leave right away. It’s unusable for a multitude of reasons. It looks like twitter. So the question is ... is there anywhere left to go? To go, as in, one’s populated social media of choice. People from twitter and reddit did a go to here. Tumblr was the last. Everything else had already succumbed to capitalism and The Algorithm, but even if I looked past The Algorithm for a second; facebook sucks, and the Parents are there and they’re eldritch; I avoid instagram like the plague, among other things I prefer to eat my food asap and I don’t want to share any pictures publicly; twitter is nothing but pointless hatred, one can’t be social there without suicidal thoughts creeping up in minutes; mastodon is a wasteland etc etc. Where do I go where it’s okay, where there’s a lot of people, where I don’t need to show my real face or real name, where an app is not a must, where the things that people share are in chronological order, where there’s no pressure and no clout-chaser-induced crap..?

Popularity is conformity, and I thought that tumblr existed specifically for people who aren’t interested in conforming, yet now there’s this ‘update’ that directly states: psych, lol!

You might say, go be social on discord, but I’m fandomless. I’m fandomless, but I do want to see what my mutuals are obsessing over and be like ‘wohoo! good for you!’ on occasion. I want to have mutuals, so to speak. I want to have the means to find more mutuals. I want to be social. With people who live on the other side of the world, and I can check how they’re doing and how their various niche interests are doing. And I want to be able to poke random strangers with reblogs and ask ‘r u fren?’. I want to post my sad little jokes too. I want to be able to curate my own experiences. I also want to have something to just scroll and read and poke hearts on, yes — when I have no energy and brainpower to read books (although I read at every opportunity). But uuh, do you read books in doctors’ waiting rooms or under IVs? I doubt it. I bet you, too, read through odd tags of odd things. So where do I go?

If your answer is ‘outside lol’ — joke’s on you, I go there every day, and not even/only for vexing things, but just on walks and for game nights and date nights and falafel. We go on aimless walks every day. Atm we live in a very walkable country with a lot of nice touchable grass, and that’s not what I mean. Yes, I get that it’s healthy and all, but I am not exactly a healthy or particularly outgoing person, and outside is definitely not somewhere I can go to poke random people who are happy about being poked, or to potentially befriend someone from the other side of the world— and I want to. So where do I go?

I’m pretty sure that it’s a rhetorical question, and that the only place left for me to go is gooseberry grove (which is code for ‘my head’).

The internet has gotten so lonely.

[flowerandthesongstress]

Recently someone told me that it must be ‘so hard [writing stories in a secondary language]’ and I burst into tears. Of gratitude. 

Not that I don’t value compliments and assurances, but sometimes all I want is for someone to understand and acknowledge how hard it is. 

I write with several dictionaries open. More often than not, I ponder over short phrases for hours not because I don’t know how to express a thing, but because I don’t know how to translate a thing. It’s there, in my head, expressed and formed, and yet I struggle to write it down. I know thousands of idioms and proverbs, they’re always at the ready, but there’s a stretch of time between remembering one and actually using it; time spent on forums, reading up, asking, in order to make sure that there’s a corresponding one in English that does not have any other nuances or hidden meanings. I hear that something is a dead metaphor in English — yet it’s a combination of new and exciting words to me. Oops. I like a word and start using it extensively — then accidentally learn that it’s a no-no or, for instance, a filler word. Oops! I had been writing for years before switching languages, I had a style already formed and cemented. I had the cultural context and an audience. Favorite expressions, jokes, mannerisms, etc. And then ... Then I had to start all over. Items gone, levels gone; look at this dork in the starting zone, with a wooden sword and a flimsy chain shirt pulled off a dead paladin, and being pummeled by a kobold. 

Paired with my brokey brain (who the heck promoted dysfunction to executive?!) it’s hard. Aside from a few initial lessons, I had no teachers but the internet. 

I often see praises directed at people who do this, praises in the vein of ‘whenever I see a fanfic preceded by words ‘sorry not my native language’ I know that it’s gonna be superb’. Again, it’s not that there’s anything wrong with compliments, it’s just— I always feel an urge to inquire of the native speaker who offers this compliment: you do understand why, though, right? And why they’re apologizing, why that faux-warning is there? Because of perpetual doubt; it’s nearly impossible to assess yourself in a secondary language. Because of fear and shame; ‘they will notice each bump, and I notice none’ and ‘they all probably speak it so much better than I do’. And because of perfectionism; brought on, in part and sometimes subconsciously, by what could be called the immigrant effect — ‘my otherness means that I have to work twice as hard’. Compliments are awesome. Assuring a person that they have nothing to be worried about? Awesome. 

Saying ‘holy forking shirtballs, that must be hard as heck’, though? God tier validation. Makes a person feel so heard and seen.

Of course I’m not complaining; it was my own choice. Moreover, choosing English over a ‘native’ 🤮 language that was forcibly imposed on me and has nothing to do with my ethnicity, culture, and upbringing, was an act of defiance on my part. Whatever anyone would say, however anyone would mock me for ‘trading an imperialist for an imperialist’ (not my words), I’m proud of myself for doing this. It’s like healing from an abusive relationship, step by tiny step (but healing is hard). I will always choose to see the positive side of English, to only perceive it as a unifying factor that brings people together. What Esperanto should have been. Kaj jes, jes, kompreneble I would have wanted Esperanto to win instead 😁but the world doesn’t work like that, alas. 

Either way, no, please don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Just saying that it’s really really friggin’ hard, and it’s very very very nice to have the hard acknowledged. 

And hey, you. Yes, you, the person writing in a secondary language. I understand how you feel. I know how hard it is. I understand your fear and pain and doubt. You’re awesome and you’re a fighter. 

[epitome-of-an-openbook]

Actually I've decided, if you're a native English speaker and you refer to the way people with american accents speak as "speaking American" I actually hate you and you're probably a bigot or a racist. Have a good day :)

[miggylol]

[ID: A tweet and accompanying graphic. The tweet by Nathan J Robinson reads: "The Wall Street Journal editorial board tried to list all of Walz's terrible radical liberal policies and ended up making him sound fantastic"

The accompanying graphic is a screencapture of part of the Wall Street Journal article. It reads:

Funding "the North Star Promise Program, which provides free college for students with a family income under $80,000," including illegal immigrants.

Creating a state system for paid family and medical leave, capped at a combined 20 weeks a year and funded by a 0.88% payroll tax.

Mandating that public utilities generate 80% carbon-free electricity by 2030, ramping up to 100% by 2040. He's a fervent believer in "climate action."

Subsidizing electric vehicles by "requiring EV charging infrastructure within or adjacent to new commercial and multi-family buildings," as the Governor's office bragged.

Passing one of the nation's most permissive abortion statues that has essentially no limits and no age consideration for minors.

Declaring Minnesota to be a "trans refuge," with a law saying that the state will ignore a "court order for the removal of a child issued in another state because the child's parent or guardian assisted the child in receiving gender-affirming care in this state."

Establishing automatic voter registration and letting Minnesotans sign up for a permanent absentee ballot option.

End ID.]

[wilwheaton]

Elon Musk has donated to a Trump campaign-affiliated PAC, tossing cash behind a candidate for the first time in the race, per Bloomberg. People familiar with the donation didn’t disclose the amount, but according to Bloomberg, they described it as a “sizeable sum.” Musk, with a net worth of far over $200 billion, has dove headfirst into far-right conspiracy and fascist-adjacent ideology in recent years, pushing strains of the Great Replacement Theory and other anti-immigrant and antisemitic rhetoric on X, formerly Twitter, the platform that he purchased in 2022.

Elon Musk officially weighs in on race, tossing cash at Trump PAC

Dogshit Nazi who owns a Nazi propaganda distribution factory, gives money to another dogshit Nazi, who is doing everything he can to turn America into a Nazi dictatorship.

This is what you support when you use Twitter. Hashtag Brands, I’m looking at you.

[tanadrin]

while i think like. *inaction* born from pessimism is misguided, and the state of the world being really bad does not necessarily imply it is immutably so, and what this might say about the appropriate *emotions* is like, fuck if i know, but i think both a) the world is objectively worse than it ever has been and getting worse, this is just straightforward statistics on animal agriculture and b) somewhat more disputable but from my american-centric viewpoint the current political situation looks *really* bad, there is a serious risk of national authoritarian far right rule, like the trump campaign is openly making plans to occupy cities with federal troops and round up millions in concentration camps and purge the bureaucracy of anyone who isnt a loyalist and might object, and state governments are already becoming increasingly oppressive, meanwhile the liberal establishment is... supporting a genocide abroad, and appeasing the right by going after immigrants domestically. i think the attitude the online left takes to the world is often extremely broken but this is not that they think the world is worse than it is or they are too doomery or whatever but that like, they seem detached from actually trying to do anything about it (as opposed to Posting) i think you are being rather needlessly uncharitable honestly to people who pessimism-adjacent post at you.

the world is objectively worse than it ever has been and getting worse, this is just straightforward statistics on animal agriculture

This is an insane claim to me. Are you just basing this on the existence of factory farming + a strict utilitarian position that weights animal lives equally to that of humans?

from my american-centric viewpoint the current political situation looks really bad

Trumpism worries me too! But this is not a process immune to human influence like a roulette wheel or something. If you're in the United States, this is a thing you have the power to affect especially as the election draws nearer (volunteer, phone bank, etc.).

(I also think Biden's chances are a bit better than polls or the media portray them to be right now; the election is certainly not a shoe-in, but the polls are really weird right now, in a way which seems to be sampling bias that underrates Biden's support.)

i think the attitude the online left takes to the world is often extremely broken but this is not that they think the world is worse than it is or they are too doomery or whatever but that like, they seem detached from actually trying to do anything about it (as opposed to Posting)

I disagree. I think anybody who thinks there's no relevant distinction between Trump and Biden, who thinks we are making no progress on fighting climate change, or who thinks that the economic situation in the US is worse than it was in the 1970s has a view of the world which is wildly distorted; but these are all relatively popular claims online!

I also don't think this distorted worldview is separable from the chronic inaction. I think the doomerism is the cause of the inaction; if the only thing that would help is the revolution (which you are not organizing anyway), you have no incentive to do anything else, so you sit at home, and you post to each other about how bad everything is, and that reinforces the impression you get from social media that everything is bad and you are correct not to do anything to try to make it better.

i think you are being rather needlessly uncharitable honestly to people who pessimism-adjacent post at you.

You haven't seen my posts before I edit them to make them more polite. I am being extremely charitable, especially relative to how charitable I want to be.

[vyl3tpwny]

Music Genres

When I was kid, you would have probably heard me say something like “I don’t believe in genre labels”. To a degree, there is still something about that sentiment that I agree with; I don’t think you can really put music and styles of music in neat little boxes. But otherwise, I was pretty much wrong about everything else.

Let’s go over that.

pictured: Mala, one of the godfathers of roots Dubstep

—

To be blunt, “genre” isn’t just about approximating what a song sounds like. If you say “I love pop music”, that honestly doesn’t mean much. The more specific you get, the more you will approach something someone can imagine like “I like experimental progressive noise pop music”. Ok, I can start to imagine things that likely approach what you're talking about, but even then it will usually not help someone fully understand what something truly is. In categorizing and approximating music styles, genres only go so far. So what makes them important then?

Well, not to say that approximating a style when describing an artist to someone is a bad thing or that doing so isn’t meant to be valued, but it’s hardly the only reason these labels exist. Importantly, “genre” helps establish culture, history, and a musical identity. So when you're trying to tell someone you're listening to a "progressive rock” project, you’re not just imagining odd time-signatures and complex riffs, you’re also meant to understand and consider that whatever is being described as to you has some sort of relevance or importance with regards to the history behind progressive rock; the culture of college bands in the UK, the sound that the punk movement revolted against, the progression of musical storytelling in rock music since the late 60’s and early 70’s, stuff like that. There’s a distinct culture and history you can pinpoint and understand when you describe something as being progressive rock and you can’t just go around calling any complex electric guitar oriented music "progressive rock" unless it has those specific ties as well as understanding and iteration of the roots.

pictured: Genesis, because progressive rock mention

—

Genre labels help to clarify what kind of culture and histories a music project is being associated itself with and where a lot of its inspiration comes from. This is much more compelling reason for underlining the importance of genre labels and why they should be used correctly.

So, there is something I need to get off my chest then. There are a lot of misuses of genre labels all over the place, especially online. And I’m not talking about saying something is “Alternative Rock” when it’s clearly some kind of “Folk Rock” record instead. What I’m talking about is something like “Dubstep”.

Even as recent as a few years ago, I started personally reclaiming the term “Dubstep” as a genre label to describe any bass-adjacent music. At the time I did this, I thought it was cool, because the term Dubstep had been dubbed (pun intended) to be cringeworthy lexicon to some people. And while I feel that’s a noble reason to reclaim something like that, because some weirdos think it's cringe, in this case I actually think it’s wrong.

The term “Brostep” has been used to describe any non-roots bass-oriented music that originates from the proper roots Dubstep. It’s a term I didn’t like FOREVER, especially because the phrase was derived as a generalization of the kind of people who tend to listen to it. However, I actually think that Brostep is a title that people should be more comfortable and confident with labeling things as.

The original Dubstep came as a result of Jamaican immigrants bringing Dub music to the UK, which then fused with the remnants of 2-Step Garage which was prominent in the 90’s just years prior. Timbah.On.Toast made a great video called All My Homies Hate Skrillex and it is a really good breakdown of what separates roots Dubstep from the Americanized Brostep, which came after it. I think everyone knows by now that I have a deep, deep love for EDM based Broste and I am the biggest Skrillex fangirl alive. So being both a Brostep and Skrillex superfan, please understand that I think the video is one of the most important things you can watch as an EDM enjoyer.

Conflating the term Dubstep with things that aren’t actually Dubstep is honestly a slap in the face to all of the pioneers of Dub and Dubstep, which famously were both pretty much ENTIRELY invented by black people. I think it’s fair to say that incorrectly labeling music in this way has racist implications. It dishonours and twists the legacy of the music. You can find og Dubstep to listen to on the RYM Ultimate Box Set > Dubstep page. Check some of that out, then listen to some 2010, 2011 Skrillex and see how different things really went.

It confused me at first when I was a teenager, I didn't understand why so many people hated Skrillex back in the day. I came to realize so much of the hate wasn’t even really with regards music itself, but the total lack of understanding or care for the roots of the genre, which all of his work was founded upon and he then subsequently bastardized without caring at all. It was pure disrespect, it was practically cultural erasure and so many people will now only know of Dubstep as “that Skrillex transformer screech music”. Yeah. It actually fucking sucks.

But there is a LONG history of black music being erased from history and being undermined, whether entirely intentional or due to systemic unawareness.

I saw a post the other day talking about how it sucks that so much music is just lumped into being “video game music” when so much of this stuff has deep roots and cultural significance. The first example pointed how a lot of acid jazz music is just described as “Persona music” by the layperson now. Meanwhile, Acid Jazz as a genre is a huge development on things like roots jazz, disco, funk, and hip hop music. You know. All genres that were invented by black people. Fascinating, right?

Jungle music was also mentioned. And this one is very particular for me. Jungle music, when not being generalized as "PS1 Music", is often just called drum & bass or breakcore (also please Google the difference between breakbeat and breakcore, thanks) which are all fundamentally misunderstanding what Jungle music even is. Much of Jungle music, AS MANY THINGS DO, finds VERY prominent roots in Reggae, Dub, and sound system culture in Jamaica as well as countless other prominently black communities in the UK.

But it doesn’t stop there.

If you’re unfamiliar, there is a genre called “IDM”, otherwise known as Intelligent Dance Music. When I was a kid, and I first heard that word, I immediately was like “that is the most pretentious, stupid thing I’ve ever heard”. Eventually as I grew up, I just stopped thinking about that and started referring to more music as IDM. This style of music is generally characterized with “complexity” and being “not much danceable”. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the music that is called IDM, I do think there’s everything wrong with the term IDM, intelligent dance music.

When asked how he feels about being labeled as an IDM artist, Aphex Twin responded:

"I just think it's really funny to have terms like that. It's [basically] saying 'this is intelligent and everything else is STUPID.' It's really nasty to everyone else's music."

pictured: Aphex Twin, the funnyman himself

—

I think most people would agree with this sentiment. It’s so strange to call one kind of music “intelligent”, out of the hundreds of thousands of genres out there. But let’s bring this back to Jungle music. The reality is that IDM started to become a term around the same time that Jungle music became prominent, in the 90's. Both styles of music are complex, introspective, skittery, and chaotic (but refined and often disciplined) genres. Except, of these two, Jungle music was the one pioneered primarily by black artists. IDM was a sort in competition with Jungle. To therefore call IDM “intelligent” in comparison to Jungle music ... well. I don’t feel like I really have to explain why that’s fucked up.

A lot of people have proposed different names for IDM. A quick look on reddit yields things like “Experimental Electronic” and “Brain Dance” (which was coined by Aphex Twin's label). Me personally, the term “Electro-Prog” comes to mind. Sounds cool.

Similar conversations are presently being had about the term “Riddim”. This brings us back to the dubstep side of this discussion again. Riddim, as an EDM genre, is an offshoot of Brostep music that focuses a lot on repetition over the downbeat, maintaining an insanely distorted sound design, a lot more than the average Brostep song. However, the term “riddim” originates — yet again — from the Jamaican Patois for “rhythm”. And Riddim as a musical style in Jamaica is actually more associated with things like dancehall and reggae, rather than the commercialized "Riddim" that is several hundred times removed from its own roots.

Last year, musician INFEKT proposed that what most EDM listeners call “riddim” should be referred to instead as “Trench” in an article on their website. This proposed name is derived from Getter’s use of the term on his 2014 record “Trenchlords Vol. 1”. I don’t personally know how much I resonate with the term, but whatever the consensus is, I don’t think we should be conflating a westernized, commercialized, and EDM-centric genre like this to Jamaican roots music. Over and over again, it seems that black music is constantly overwritten by developments like this, so I think more care needs to be taken in not allowing that to happen.

As a side note, a lot of people online seem very keen on appropriating Jamaican Patois quite often? There are so many examples of this. When the term “Bomboclaat” started making the rounds on Twitter a few years ago, so many white people were quick to either talk wildly about the term and trend or otherwise start saying it as well. There was a fucking article that sought to answer “The Bomboclaat >> Meme << Meaning Explained”, like they’re not dissecting an element of Jamaican slang lol. Then there was a period of time where people were constantly saying things like “On Jah?” as a stand-in for “On God?” even though this, again, is Jamaican Patois. And even now, you have tons and tons of non-black people going everywhere being like “what is blud waffling about?”, the phrase “blud” ONCE AGAIN also being Jamaican in origin.

I shouldn’t even have to explain what makes these kinds of appropriations weird and messed up. But black people lose jobs and are denied basic things in life over their hair styles, their expressions and slang, and so many other things that a white person can just appropriate and face zero consequences whatsoever for.

That aside, aside. Understanding and labeling genres correctly is such a big part of music history and highlighting and preserving cultures worldwide. When efforts are made to undermine the meaning of a genre label or otherwise use it incorrectly, so much damage is done to the communities and people groups that innovate and pioneer this art to begin with.

For these reasons, I will gladly use the term Brostep. I will happily call things Electro-Prog. And when you talk about genres like Jungle and Dubstep, say it with your whole chest. Be proud of the human race, show respect and love for the people who have forged the greatest parts of music with their bare hands. We will always stand on the shoulders of giants as musicians, so instead of pretending you yourself are the giant, build monuments and maintain the history of these people. You as an artist are nothing without them.

pictured: Augustus Pablo, one of the most important innovators of Dub. Without him, and without many of his contemporaries, I would reckon that half or more of all modern music would simply not exist.

CONTENT WARNING FOR THIS FINAL SECTION, THERE ARE LIKE LOTS OF STRANGE SLURS AND RACIST VIBES.

—

One last thing I wanna mention, this is slightly tangential but I think it's relevant to this conversation. It's always weird how lots of websites categorize things like this:

From Big Fish Audio... "G**sy*? "World/Ethnic Loops & Samples"? What the fuck are you talking about. Seems like racism to me.

On Loopmasters they have a "World" section. Any Americanized genre gets its own category, but the entire continents of Africa and Asia as well as the country of India and region of the Middle East (which are part of Asia, hope this helps btw) and lastly South America are stuffed into the nebulous "World Label". Seems like racism to me. Are you telling me you weirdos can't figure out a better way to represent these things?

But then Psy Trance gets its whole entire own category? Aren't there only like five people who listen to Psy Trance? /hj . But like come on.

Shoutout to WA Productions for categorizing a universe of suspiciously mostly black music as """Urban"""". And this company is a dime a dozen, hundreds of corpos do this shit.

East fucking West, what is this dude. There is a racism happening, I just know it. Please give me a count of how many poc are on payroll at your company, I am so curious.

And while we're at it, East West, what is this. Tell me. Fucking tell me.

Thanks for reading.

[jarenka]

While I am drunk I want to tell you a story from Russian-speaking twitter.

There is a twitter user Mikhail Pletnev (I use his real name because his twitter account is named like that) who is a Russian immigrant in Tbilisi, Georgia. Once he started to complain that he is too shy to pick women up. Other Russian-speaking user from Tbilisi called him out for (as they assumed) lies. They claimed that Mikhail actually slept with half of Tbilisi. Mikhail Pletnev argued that he didn't sleep with half of Tbilisi. He claims there are about 450-500 immigrants from Russia in Tbilisi (I don't know how to translate it, but he meant anti-war immigrants from Russia who moved in 2022-2023), he knows about 250-300 of them, about half of them are women (130-150) and he slept only with 13 of them. He claims that every other person who goes to kink parties or just more open to dates with random people has more partners than him.

It caused a lot of jokes in Russian-speaking twitter including ones about local newly emerged alpha male dude (I don't want to use his name because I don't want to promote this grifter), which are going like that:

%alpha dude%: complains about women who are too egoistical to have sex with him.

Mikhail Pletnev: had sex with 13 women only in Tbilisi despite being too shy to pick up.

Which one of them deserves to have a course about seducing women?

(also the fun addition: Mikhail is (I am sorry) the most average balding slavic dude, every alpha male-adjacent incel would say that he would never get a girl, but he actually got more girls that any incel can dream)

[werewolfetone]

Hey btw if the phrase "there's too many immigrants" or anything adjacent or similar has ever come out of your mouth can you get off my blog and maybe kill yourself also. thanks

[fatehbaz]

“Dutch King apologizes for Netherlands’ role in slavery.”

The Dutch/Netherlands abducted slaves from West Africa; hosted the Dutch West India Company; operated an extensive profitable sugar plantation industry built on slave labor; and established colonies in the greater Caribbean region including sites at Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, and the adjacent “Wild Coast” (land between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers, including Guyana and Suriname). Many of these places remained official colonies until between the 1950s and 1990s.

---

Scholarship on resistance to Dutch practices of slavery, colonialism, and imperialism in the Caribbean:

“Decolonization, Otherness, and the Neglect of the Dutch Caribbean in Caribbean Studies.” Margo Groenewoud. Small Axe. 2021.

“Women’s mobilizations in the Dutch Antilles (Curaçao and Aruba, 1946-1993).” Margo Groenewoud. Clio. Women, Gender, History No. 50. 2019.

“Black Power, Popular Revolt, and Decolonization in the Dutch Caribbean.” Gert Oostindie. In: Black Power in the Caribbean. Edited by Kate Quinn. 2014.

“History Brought Home: Postcolonial Migrations and the Dutch Rediscovery of Slavery.” Gert Oostindie. In: Post-Colonial Immigrants and Identity Formations in the Netherlands. Edited by Ulbe Bosma. 2012.

“Other Radicals: Anton de Kom and the Caribbean Intellectual Tradition.” Wayne Modest and Susan Legene. Small Axe. 2023.

Di ki manera? A Social History of Afro-Curaçaoans, 1863-1917. Rosemary Allen. 2007.

Creolization and Contraband: Curaçao in the Early Modern Atlantic World. Linda Rupert. 2012.

“The Empire Writes Back: David Nassy and Jewish Creole Historiography in Colonial Suriname.” Sina Rauschenbach. The Sephardic Atlantic: Colonial Histories and Postcolonial Perspectives. 2018.

“The Scholarly Atlantic: Circuits of Knowledge Between Britain, the Dutch Republic and the Americas in the Eighteenth Century.” Karel Davids. 2014. And: “Paramaribo as Dutch and Atlantic Nodal Point, 1640-1795.” Karwan Fatah-Black. 2014. And: Dutch Atlantic Connections, 1680-1800: Linking Empires, Bridging Borders. Edited by Gert Oostindie and Jessica V. Roitman. 2014.

Decolonising the Caribbean: Dutch Policies in a Comparative Perspective. Gert Oostindie and Inge Klinkers. 2003. And: “Head versus heart: The ambiguities of non-sovereignties in the Dutch Caribbean.” Wouter Veenendaal and Gert Oostindie. Regional & Federal Studies 28(4). August 2017.

Tambú: Curaçao’s African-Caribbean Ritual and the Politics of Memory. Nanette de Jong. 2012.

“More Relevant Than Ever: We Slaves of Suriname Today.” Mitchell Esajas. Small Axe. 2023.

“The Forgotten Colonies of Essequibo and Demerara, 1700-1814.” Eric Willem van der Oest. In: Riches from Atlantic Commerce: Dutch Transatlantic Trade and Shipping, 1585-1817. 2003.

“Conjuring Futures: Culture and Decolonization in the Dutch Caribbean, 1948-1975.” Chelsea Shields. Historical Reflections / Reflexions Historiques Vol. 45 No. 2. Summer 2019.

“’A Mass of Mestiezen, Castiezen, and Mulatten’: Fear, Freedom, and People of Color in the Dutch Antilles, 1750-1850.” Jessica Vance Roitman. Atlantic Studies 14, no. 3. 2017.

---

This list only covers the Caribbean.

But outside of the region, there is also the legacy of the Dutch East India Company; over 250 years of Dutch slavers and merchants in Gold Coast and wider West Africa; about 200 years of Dutch control in Bengal (the same region which would later become an engine of the British Empire’s colonial wealth extraction); over a century of Dutch control in Sri Lanka/Ceylon; Dutch operation of the so-called “Cultivation System” (”Cultuurstelsei”) in the nineteenth century; Dutch enforcement of brutal forced labor regimes at sugar plantations in Java, which relied on de facto indentured laborers who were forced to sign contracts or obligated to pay off debt and were “shipped in” from other islands and elsewhere in Southeast Asia (a system existing into the twentieth century); the “Coolie Ordinance” (”Koelieordonnanties”) laws of 1880 which allowed plantation owners to administer punishments against disobedient workers, resulting in whippings, electrocutions, and other cruel tortures (and this penal code was in effect until 1931); and colonization of Indonesian islands including Sumatra and Borneo, which remained official colonies of the Netherlands until the 1940s.

[vindicated-truth]

This is tangential to the point, and pure speculation on my part, but I've always found it interesting that the type of cuisine they eat on the show clearly plays a role on establishing whether the person is "good" or "evil".

Everyone in the show who has ever dined with traditional Korean food had all been good-adjacent people, mostly the people of Manyang: Dongsik, Sangbae, Jaeyi, Jihwa, Jihoon, Jeongje, Gilgu, Gwangyoung.

(Which is why it also says a lot that by the end of the show, Jeongje and Gilgu are both not part of the Korean cuisine table anymore.)

Everyone in the show who has ever dined with Japanese / Chinese food had all been the evil-adjacent people, specifically the trio of Han Kihwan, Do Haewon, and Lee Changjin, with the addition of Jung Cheolmoon.

In fact, it's fascinating to me that the "villains" of the story have all always met at a Japanese restaurant, and dined specifically with Japanese cuisine like sashimi.

Again, this is pure speculation on my part, but I'm fascinated by the not-so-subtle portrayal of Japanese cuisine as adjacent to "evil"—considering how South Korea has never gotten over their grudge against their former colonizer, Japan.

And South Korea culturally has always been a grudge-bearing country—rightfully so—against the countries that have colonized them.

This political relationship also comes into play with the way the illegal immigrants and prostitutes in the show, and the ones supplying illegally acquired yuan for gambling, just had to be Chinese—considering as well South Korea's political friction with China as the one who sided with North Korea during the war.

(It does make me doubly appreciative of the Manyang group, and Joowon as well, that this political prejudice didn't stop them from seeking justice for these Chinese immigrants, especially Lee Geumhwa. It says a lot of how despite his imperfections, Joowon is inherently good (and intelligent) for never allowing himself to blinded by any sort of bias.)

As for Joowon himself, it's fascinating that he's neither of the two; in the beginning he's shown to neither dine with Korean nor Japanese cuisine, but his fare is more of the Western cuisine—as was shown when he cooked up that meal for Dongsik at his apartment. Again, unsurprisingly, considering he spent most of his youth and early teenage years at a boarding school in England before moving back to South Korea.

It's fascinating then that what he dined with together with the Manyang group at the end of the show is budae jiggae, which is a fusion of American and Korean food that came up during the Korean war with leftover meat out of U.S. bases in South Korea.

And it should be noted here too, interestingly, that South Korea has always viewed the U.S. as their political ally.

(For Joowon to be symbolized by Western food is fascinating, because if it's likened to South Korea's politics, it's like the Manyang group sees him as not one of theirs—but can still be a potential ally.)

As I've always said, it's impossible to separate Beyond Evil as a show from the cultural context of South Korea, and when you view it from that lens, it's fascinating that even the country's political biases are revealed symbolically in the show too.

For the symbolism of budae jiggae in the show in particular, it was first shown on the flashback during the dinner after Nam Sangbae's death, when he first tried their town's new restaurant catering to fusion cuisines. And it's symbolic of how everyone was wary to try something new at first, something foreign—and how it was Dongsik who had the first taste.

It says a lot for Joowon's character in particular, because if he has always been symbolized by Western cuisine and the Manyang group (including Dongsik) has always been symbolized by traditional Korean cuisine, the way they dined together on budae jiggae in their reunion lunch at Jaeyi's speaks so significantly of Joowon finally being a part of their family.

[youfecklessthug]

Sherlock Holmes Adaptations

Been a Sherlock Holmes master fan since I was 9 so have a list of Sherlock Holmes adaptations. The list will be split into adaptations and then more...inspired by Holmes. This list is by no means exhaustive, just ones I personally know/like. If you want an exhustive list of adaptations look here(source @sholmeses1881 on Youtube). (my aim had been to link to where you can watch these but apparently tumblr posts with 🏴‍☠️links get taken down.)

First - A link to the Original Sherlock Holmes stories

Films

Sherlock Holmes (dir. Guy Ritchie, SH - Robert Downey Jr.)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (dir. Guy Ritchie), SH - Robert Downey Jr.)

Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes series (link to the wiki - there's tons of these)

Young Sherlock Holmes (dir. Barry Levinson, SH - Nicolas Rowe)

Peter Cushing's The Hound of the Baskervilles

Mr Holmes (dir. Bill Condon, SH - Ian McKellen)

TV

BBC's Sherlock (Modern, SH - Benedict Cumberbatch)

Elementary (Modern, SH - Johnny Lee Miller.) (IN this one John is Joan played by Lucy Lui)

Sherlock Holmes (Original, SH - Jeremy Brett)

Miss Sherlock (Japanese, Modern, SH- Yūko Takeuchi)

Young Sherlock (Not out yet but I have high hopes - loved the books as a kid)

Books

Anthony Horowitz's House of Silk & Moriarty (first official books)

Anthony Lane's Young Sherlock

James Lovegrove's Sherlock Holmes books (Sherlock Holmes + supernatural)

Podcast

Sherlock & Co. (Modern)

Other media (Holmes Adjacent/inspired)

Enola Holmes (book series/films) (Sherlock Holmes' younger sister)

Psych (tv show) (This isn't technically Holmes but oh man it so is)

The Murder of Mr Ma (Book. Take Sherlock Holmes, set it in the 1920s and make the characters Chinese immigrants. It is PHENOMENAL)

The Great Mouse Detective (They're mice idk what to tell you.)

House MD. (They're Doctors. This show is batty n i love it)

Without A Clue. (This is a farcical film where Holmes is actually an idiot. I love it)

Also accepting suggestions of any you feel I have missed!

[jacquesthepigeon]

So funny little immigrant adjacent story, the father of one of my friends is from Panama and came over as a political refugee and proceeded to meet friend’s mom (current wife) and have friend + sister. Pretty chill so far. Until one day, friend’s mom gets a call asking for friend’s dad and when she asks who it is, they respond “I’m [friend’s dad]’s daughter”.

So not only did this man hide the fact that he had two daughters back in Panama (the oldest of whom is only 2 years younger than his current wife), he acted super casual about it and the current family just accepted it

When I brought up how bonkers insane that is, friend just said “well, he was a political refugee, he had to” and I’m still like ???? bc okay I can’t pretend to be familiar with what it it’s like to be on the run from the government but it’s still insane that he just went about his life ignoring the fact he had two daughters for around 20+ years

[damianbugs]

Please please please tell me about south Asian Jason Todd

i have literally never wanted to do anything more in my entire life. thank you for this opportunity anon.

it's a hc i have had for a while, in which willis is south asian and catherine is hispanic! i haven't thought about it in more specific ethnicities, because i am indecisive and fear permanence — but he is brown!

as a character there was just a lot about jason that 1) felt far too poc coded to be left white and 2) could easily be attributed to brown immigrant families.

it is also connected to my adjacent hc where jason is hindu, mainly because of the absolute horror it can evoke when you realise he was brought back to life. his entire revival story is something straight out of an ancient hindu folk tale.

not to mention that to hindus, the idea of revival is almost the closest thing to hell (which it basically is for jason). his soul was never let free, because he was buried (not cremated) and his physical body became a prison. then there's the question of is the soul he woke up with the same one he died with? then there's the spiritual aspect of it that can be tied back to the effects left on him by the lazarus and —

i could go on more about jason and his relationship with hinduism another time but this is the basics of it. south asian jason is something that started as me projecting onto a character, as all hcs tend to start, that is now something about jason i cherish and share and can defend.

[ominous-feychild]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! What would you say is the defining trait of any of your settings?

Omg, this is a very difficult question to answer because I do a LOT of worldbuilding, haha. But let's see...

I think, technically, the most defining traits of my settings is how different they are? I hop around the (in-universe) world in each individual story, and each in-universe country is inspired by real world cultures. But mostly drawing inspiration from ancient cultures because I explicitly prefer ancient history to modern. Plus, it's more fun to research. Which--ha--I'm definitely in the minority for feeling this way, I know!

I actually mentioned this recently toward the very end of another post I made recently, but I'll restate it for convenience's sake, haha... and then go into more detail.

Glavnran (tAR) is Slavic (drawing primarily from early Slavic history, while I do my absolute best to figure out what the folklore was like before Christianity got its grubby hands on it. A polytheistic spinoff of Christianity exists in my story, appropriating a lot of its themes and imageries. That religion exists nowhere near Glavnran, so it has no place there. Also I think I've made it clear I dislike Christianity.)

Jhandar (tAR) is Indian (off the top of my head, I can't recall if I was taking from any specific era, but I'm drawing on inspiration from Hinduism and there's a prominent caste system. Jhandar is also an empire, drawing inspiration from Rome and especially the rule of the Qin Dynasty of China. While not exactly thematically relevant, it's fun and helps explain some things I wanted happening in Glavnran/the surrounding countries. Oh, yeah, Glavnran is under the thumb of the Jhandan Empire. It's why there's so much tension between the Glavni and Jhandan peoples.) (Also, the blue-and-red coloration here isn't a "good-and-evil" thing. To anyone who's read anything about my writing, it should be VERY clear that Glavnran isn't a great place and is, in fact, full of crime and -phobias of all sorts. It's based on their temperatures/climate, haha. I would've put Glavnran as orange but that fits other countries better.)

Lynsmouth (SaS) is Western European (the Western World gets a lot of focus in media, so Lynsmouth and the country it takes place in that I've definitely named get to be the Token "West" in my writing. It gets inspiration from all over Western Europe, but I've primarily focused on France and the Netherlands for it. It's also got Italian-style mafias, haha. They have the Christian-adjacent religion where they glorify a single god. It is, however, subtly dying out, because of Lore and immigration of a sort. The "new arrivals" so to speak have their own religions.)

Kihroin (RFtA) is Northern African (as in Islamic. I'm most likely leaning most strongly into Morrocan inspiration for anything "modern", but obviously most strongly leaning toward ancient history. Islam itself obviously won't appear in my writing, as I'm working within a fantasy world with provably real pantheons of gods. I haven't decided how I'll adapt their hyper-religiousness into Kihroin, especially because I'm personally uncomfortable with religion (though I bet you couldn't tell) and yet want to adapt something that major to their modern culture(s) into my writing. Yet another reason RFtA isn't a current project.)

Cirrane (RFtA) is Latin American (given that actual Native American history is incredibly difficult to get our hands on--cough cough THANKS COLONIZERS, THANKS CHRISTIANITY cough cough--it has a lot more modern inspiration(s) than ancient. Howeverrrr... that's not necessarily a "bad" thing considering that Cirrane is a very bad place and I know plenty of people will @ me accusing me of racism for it anyway. Nah, man, it's pretty much everywhere in my writing! It's almost like it makes for a better story! Also my Mexican gf approves of what I'm doing with it, so take THAT, SJWs.) (Oops, I ranted there for a second. Long story short, it takes a lot of inspiration from all over Latin America! That applies to the other two "Latino" countries too, though, haha. Besides that, it's also stolen quite a bit of imagery from Rome. Ah, that must be where the Evil's from. /hj)

Tzakah (RFtA/tCC) is also Latin American (one of my favorite places in all of my worldbuilding!!! Is also extremely tropical. It's a lot more "original" of a culture due to worldbuilding stuff, but it still takes a lot of Latin American Inspiration.)

Minogua (RFtA/tCC/???) is the last Latin American country (explicitly has a previous history of colonization that they've (relatively) recently shaken off through rebellion and ousting the authorities from other countries. Tackles a lot of those issues a lot more directly and has them more modern than the other two. Though it makes sense considering Tzakah was previously part of Cirrane. Regardless! There's lots to possibly tap into, but Minogua so far only has characters originating from there. Well, and minor plots relevant to those characters but y'know. I definitely want to eventually make a story placed there eventually to more directly explore its themes!)

Honorable mentions/speedrun:

Isagnea (tAR, though idk how much it'll show up, and ???) is Italian (not very worked on, but it's the home country of some side characters... hence why it's not really worked on. It'll definitely see more attention if and when it becomes relevant. Most likely, it won't be until if/when I work on another story focused on those characters. Or, y'know, it appears in another story.)

Ilyich (tAR, tho it likely won't show up more than once) is Slavic (country Glavnran was once a part of, before they split off (not peacefully) over religious differences. Methinks a Christian-esque religion might actually be rather hated by the Glavni people...)

Shilyma (tAR, mentioned but not visited) is a Slavic/Asian mix! (so, yknow, likely would take inspo from Mongolia? Not too developed, but is like Tzakah in that its origins are unique.)

Anispe (tAR, end of series, and ???) is Greek (spoilers! 😁 But Jhandar is actively at war with it, trying to get them under its thumb as well! I have Plots to eventually make a story centered on Anispe before it was Anispe, too!)

Shaoraigh (SaS) is Celtic (an oldie but goodie! I did a good bit of worldbuilding here in the past even though it's never appeared in my writing. One of its gods are VERY important in the worldbuilding, however.)

Drønhals (SaS) is Celtic/Norse (Freya's home country, was once part of Shaoraigh (in-universe) but they separated over religious differences!)

Tulidin (tCC) is Chinese (I'm probably changing its name eventually, though. Also has minor worldbuilding and a character originating from there.)

Shoutout to misc unnamed countries that exist, but I've never gotten around to naming them for one reason or another! Like, for example, the Jhandan-Glavni colonies Rieka and Adilzhan are from and the Hawaiian-and-Japanese-inspired country hidden away from the rest of the world. (Wish I could make it Pure Hawaiian, but... you try doing research on Hawaii. Join me in my hatred for Christianity.)

Can you tell I've been writing/working on this world for ten years?

This post has gotten WAY longer than I was expecting (though really I should've figured, smh) so I'll make this last bit quick:

The technology contained within each country/story is very different, both due to wealth gaps and time period jumps! There's... a lot of worldbuilding. The Arcane Rifts takes place approximately 200 years before Sun and Shadow and Rising From the Ashes (which are connected to each other), so that on top of the exploitation from Jhandar means they're not going to have the greatest tech for example. Sorry this was so long! Hope you enjoyed reading!!!

Also, apparently I have more of Western Europe in my worldbuilding than I thought. Now I'm disappointed in myself.

Also-also, I misread this Ask. I thought it was asking for the defining traits in everything... whoops. I made this WAY harder on myself than I needed to.

Tagging those interested!: @the-golden-comet @the-letterbox-archives @honeybewrites @darkandstormydolls @mysticstarlightduck

@urnumber1star @aalinaaaaaa

[sparksinthenight]

I’m thinking about The Hunger Games. It … it somehow manages to represent the world we live in and more specifically the Global North - Global South power dynamics and oppression systems in a truthful and insightful way that no other media does, and yet it completely mischaracterizes the power dynamics within the Global South and the class and race hierarchies that characterize the internal power structures in the Global South. The prequel also horrifically mischaracterizes immigration, the immigrant experience, and what immigrants are like. To the point where that book literally psychologically triggered me and I had to stop reading it because it was such terrible representation, dear gods.

So like, the thing is, there is not and never has been and never will be solidarity between the poor and the comfortable in the Global South. Yes, the North oppresses the South and the North exploits and profits from and metaphorically and often literally enslaves the South. But the well-off in the South do all of these things too. And from what I’ve seen and experienced in my personal life and what I’ve heard from other people who grew up in or live in the South, the well-off Southerners are probably worse than the North when it comes to oppressing and exploiting and profiting off of the poor people of the South. You can say that America is the Big Bad and everything bad happens because of it. But the fact of the matter is that without comfortable Southerners doing all the direct things required to keep the poor in line, the international and intranational hierarchies of the world would fall apart. Global Southern police officers and military members and government and businesspeople and employers and bosses and moneyed people are directly the reason the poor people in the Global South are being exploited, even if the North benefits from this all a whole lot too.

And … what the hell was the mountain scene in District Two? Those guys were peacekeepers. They were COPS. The poor people of the Global South don’t need to and should not feel any sense of solidarity with the COPS that keep them held down. And I’m not only saying this because I’m anti cop but because the people in that mountain benefitted from harming and oppressing the poor people, they benefitted from keeping the poor people from gaining power, and they benefitted from the system that kept the poor people poor. Those peacekeepers and peacekeeper-adjacent were not oppressed in any way, despite being from the Districts (aka Global South). They were the oppressors. You could argue that actually they were oppressed because their kids could be reaped. But two kids get reaped a year and there’s thousands of kids in the district. But even ignoring that fact, the point is that the mountain scene was meant to parallel real-world dynamics. And no real world cops are oppressed. Even ones in the Global South, or perhaps especially them to be honest.

And we need to talk about TBOSAS and the way it paints immigrants. Immigrants are not worse than non-immigrants, but they’re not better either. They are not would-be rebels full of empathy and compassion for the poor people they left behind. They are not brave heroes who will die for the Global South. I’m saying this from experience, I have moved in immigrant circles all my life. Immigrants are no better than anyone else in the Global North, they are only tied to their homelands in the most superficial and shallow ways possible, and they ally and align themselves with the Global North and against the Global South most of the time, just like most Global Northerners do. They’ll wear traditional clothes but those clothes will be made out of fabric the cost of which could feed a whole family back home for a month. Yes, there are immigrants who are the brave hero-martyr with undying loyalty that the book showcases. But those cases are really rare, they are really more of an anomaly than anything else. And I’m not saying this to say that immigrants are bad. I’m saying this to say that immigrants are far more part of and loyal to their adoptive countries, and cannot be expected to act differently from non-immigrants in any way that substantially matters.

I also think that Primrose is an example of all that is wrong with Collins’ understanding of the South. Prim looks like and can be said to symbolize the more affluent parts of the district. She resembles her mother who is from the more wealthy part of town while Katniss represents her father who is from the Seam. Now the moderate wealth of the Town does not hold a candle to the extravagance and excess of rich parts of the South. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, there are penthouse vacation homes blocks away from shantytowns. Literally. But still, the Town in District Twelve represents what Collins thinks is the wealthy part of the South. (And in my opinion the Town is also very guilty for not sharing what they have and not helping the literal starving people of their district. If you saw someone with no food and you had money and you spent that money on a party dress instead of food for them then guess what? You’re completely fucking evil and going to hell. But anyways, back to the actual point.) Prim has the Town genes and Katniss had the Seam genes. And who is good and pure and innocent and must be protected? Prim. And who is able to withstand inhuman amounts of hardship and do child labour? Katniss. Who has to sacrifice her own innocence and goodness and childhood to protect the other one? Katniss. Whose life and safety is considered not quite as valuable? Katniss.

And Gale and Peeta. I couldn’t care less who Katniss got with. She can pick who she wants. But just like Prim and Katniss, Gale and Peeta represent the rich and poor sides of the South. Despite Peeta not being nearly as rich as the most rich people in the South actually are. He’s still richer. He still fits into the metaphor and symbolism. And who is more kind and reasonable and right? Peeta. Who is more good and pure? Peeta. Who is shown as not being able to see past their emotions and grudges? Gale. Who is seen as stubborn and overly violent? Gale.

There are ways in which The Hunger Games is revolutionary and amazing. But there are ways in which it feels like some kind of disguised psyop.