#not just exploiting black culture but also children

[clowningaroundmars]

people shipping kendrick and drake rn in the midst of this feud......... hmmmm. don't like that!

[cooking-with-hailstones]

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In case you were wondering: are the campus protests even important? Do they matter? Are they making a difference?

Yes, yes. They are making a difference.

Video description: Bisan, a young Palestinian woman, is speaking directly to the camera. She is wearing a black shirt and a keffiyeh.

Video transcript (I did my best but missed a few words)

I’m 25 years old. I’ve lived my whole life in Gaza Strip. I’ve never felt hope like now. Never. I mean it’s magical feelings running in my veins right now. In my head, I’m in Gaza city, in the north of Gaza Strip rebuilding my city after this genocide has ended. Even started to dream that my friends from Yafa, Haifa (unsure), majdal, are returning to their cities after being displaced for 75 years. These young heroes in universities at America and around the world are stronger than the last occupation in history. And for the first time in our lives as Palestinians, we hear a voice louder than their voices and the sound of their bombs and even stronger than their control in all aspects of our lives. 

In the 70s, the occupation, Prime Minister said, after decades of killing Palestinians, stealing the lands, establishing the state of Israel over the lands that “the adults will die, and children will definitely forget.” 

Wait. Is that the greatest (unsure) in history? Because it’s children and youth who are leading the movement for a free Palestine. everything they have on the line to demand justice and end of the genocide, and a new era of the world, not based on oppression, exploitation or colonialism. 

Do you know what the best part is? demonstrations and calls for boycott in the academic institutions are not limited to a certain people from certain religion, culture, color, religion, race, or maybe economic level. We are all different so we can no longer be accused of anti-Semitism, serving some agendas from outside, we are just different people calling for the same thing. People to people and people to justice. 

200 days I’ve spent escaping death every single minute were not in vain. And those 40,000 innocent souls were killed during these days were not also in vain. And this is the first time to feel and tell you this. 

Keep going because you are our only hope and we promise we will hold our ground and tell you the truth always. And please, don’t let their violence scare you. In Arabic, we say (Arabic phrase). In English, that means “they don’t have other options, but trying to terrify and silence you” because you are demolishing decades of brainwashing. You are making the change. The real change. Their violence means that we’ve begun to affect them deeply. Believe me, we are in the bottom of this bottle and we’re very very close to the end of this genocide. Maybe even closer than anytime before. Thank you. Thank you for each one of you, because you made us, me and my people feel that we are free. We are heard. We’re going back to our homes, and land. 

(Through tears) I have spent the whole night thinking about every video I see, you shouting for Palestine, you protesting for Palestine, you are dancing, singing for Palestine I feel it here in my head that I am going back. And I am free, and one day, we will celebrate it in, in Gaza together. Keep going and we will too. Salaam. 

(if anyone can help with my transcript, it would be much appreciated!)

[webanglikethat]

On Gabe. (TW // abuse)

as a victim of abuse myself, everyone complaining that Gabe is not ''abusive enough'' makes me so enraged. just because we don't see sally limping with a black eye while blood is rushing down her face, it does not mean she's not abused. it's important to recognize that abuse can manifest in various forms, including emotional, psychological, verbal, and financial abuse and even more. it is not always visible or easily identifiable. abuse leaves scars that aren't always visible to the naked eye. stop pretending it is always black and white.

he is financially abusive: he is unemployed and seemingly devoid of any inclination towards responsibility. he shamelessly exploits Sally's hard-earned money and so, her efforts to secure a stable financial future for herself and Percy are callously disregarded as Gabe channels those funds into a destructive vortex of gambling.

he is verbally abusive to Percy: he always belittles him, undermining his self-esteem and sense of worth. Percy is barely twelve, living in a world that was not crafted for him, and he is trying to come to terms with that and there is Gabe, taking advantage of that. the psychological impact of Gabe's actions goes beyond mere verbal jabs; it seeps into the very fabric of Percy's self-concept. if you want to believe it or not.

he is okay with physical abuse: when Percy mentions he got kicked out for ´´assaulting a girl´´, instead of the expected concern or guidance everyone would expect, Gabe's response is a simple yet chilling "okay," delivered with an almost impressed and approving tone. rather than condemning the use of physical force, Gabe's indifferent response suggests that he too would be okay with it and that perhaps, Percy's house isn't the safe place he thought it would be. (which we know is true, if you have read the books)

he is mentally abusive: HE answered Sally’s phone and spoke to the principal at Yancy. Gabe, ever the puppeteer, attempted to extend his influence by seeking to control not only the household dynamics but also the very upbringing of Sally's son.

coercive control: in this scenario, Gabe is exerting control over the family's mobility by dictating access to the car. by making Sally negotiate, Gabe is asserting dominance and creating an environment where Sally feels compelled to seek his permission for everyday activities.

and I cannot believe that twelve year old Percy saw the red flags before some of you all -- who are grown adults -- did. Percy's recognition of the subtle manipulation tactics employed by Gabe showcase the emotional intelligence and observational skills that children can only develop when navigating difficult circumstances (shoutout to my psychology class).

so you know what? I think TV shows need more representation like this. the portrayal of Gabe as an abuser who initially appears harmless and quite stupid aligns with the reality of many abusive relationships because contrary to popular perceptions, abuse doesn't always manifest in blatant physical aggression or explicit threats. more often than not, it takes on subtler forms, such as psychological, emotional, or financial manipulation (as I already mentioned). and I am so proud that the show chose this narrative path because it sheds light on the less-discussed aspects of abuse. in my opinion, the show proves to be a valuable resource by deviating from conventional tropes in its portrayal. victims often hesitate to seek help when their experiences deviate from the expected narrative, and bystanders may struggle to recognize the more subtle aspects of abuse, perpetuating a culture of silence and impunity for abusers. so good job to the percy jackson directors, you got my respect. <3

[clonerightsagenda]

It seems like Within the Wires is going to be another Night Vale Presents production with a big Native American hole in its heart.

I've talked about this before, but a core motif in Alice isn't Dead is the emptiness at the heart of America, the big open spaces, the land with no people. America is a land of distance more than culture, etc. But except for an offhand mention in the third season and a more direct comment in the liveshow, the narrative doesn't engage with why that land is empty. If we're talking about the violence hidden within our miles, that first, defining act of violence seems critical. (Also, I know it's focused on highways, but if we want to discuss the violence and exploitation of our efforts to bridge those miles, the Chinese railway workers are right there... Also the displacement of poor and majority Black neighborhoods for the building of a lot of those highways.)

Meanwhile, WTNV establishes that Night Vale predates the arrival of European settlers. At the outset Night Vale is this zany town with spooky happenings where all conspiracy theories are true, but if its age means that its history and traditions are rooted in Indigenous beliefs, the surrealist comedy approach makes me a little uneasy.

Finally, I just finished Within the Wires season 3, where Michael talks about how the science and data support the efficacy of the year ten/family separation program. But... there is a major precedent in American history for removing children from their families and deliberately destroying their ties to their heritage, culture, and nation, and that's Native residential schools. Is that what they're talking about? Hell, the New Society seems to have come to power in the 50s and increased its draconian presence in the 60s - it's basically a Sixties Scoop but happening to everyone.

I enjoy Night Vale Present's work a lot, but it is bizarre to me that while all the productions go out of their way via character names to indicate a very diverse world, they consistently fail to engage with this part of American history even when it makes no sense not to.

[skippyv20]

Majestic_Cut_2209•1 mo. ago•Edited 1 mo. ago

I liked her when she got married to Prince Harry, I believed she brought something different to the royal family which would be good since it’s an old institution.

I completely started to dislike her and Harry after they came to Africa, South Africa and turned what was a very successful visit into a platform to complain about petty family drama. I’m African so I know how much those visits mean to the charities/organisations and how much preparation goes into them, so to see that all overshadowed was sad. I also couldn’t understand how they managed to have the nerve to complain about their circumstances after meeting mothers struggling to feed and provide for their children and domestic violence victims, some situations should give you perspective and you should let those less fortunate have their moment.

I was completely done though after the Wimbledon fiasco, where she took up a whole section and instructed the public not to take her pictures. Like wtf! Royalty, celebrities and players have all been to Wimbledon as spectators and none has ever tried tell the public not to take their pictures. By the time they were complaining about this and that, I knew they were the problem and the world would soon see it.

asslukt•1 mo. ago•Edited 1 mo. ago

Well.... I used to like her. I loved her on Suits, even though I didn't watch it before they got married. I thought she was pretty, seemed charming and prepared for the role, as an actress who was at least somewhat used to media attention, even though her fame as an actress seems to have been exxagarated. I thought she'd bring some much needed freshness to the royal families, instead she just brought drama for the tabloids to exploit.

She seemed completely unprepared for what it means to be a royal. The cracks started showing, when she invited people from Hollywood she never met to the wedding (like Oprah) instead of her childhood friends. Since then, it was a steady decline where she seems to attribute to racism what is simply cultural differences. And no, I don't mean the skin colour comments, they were obviously horrible.

What really switched it for me, though, was the Oprah Interview. She displays such a lack of understanding of what it means to be a Royal Member that I'm wondering if she even knows what a royal is. She spends most of the interview whining about how she's not as loved as Diana was, or maybe Kate is. But she doesn't understand that they married the heir, and she married the spare. She was supposedly friends with Eugenie before she met Harry, and thus a quick google search would have shown her how Eugenie's mother was treated. Fergie was also cast as "the evil redheaded witch trying to break up the family", somewhat similar to how Meghan got cast as "the evil black bitch trying to break up the family". Misogyny is after all, eternal. She didn't know what she walked in to, unlike Kate, and that shows. She didn't seem to be very eager to find out either, to be honest. It's not like it's hard to google the Royal Protocol or something, and it's not like she couldn't have asked for help within the establishment on how to dress or behave.

She then goes on whining about how Archie isn't entitled to protection, and tries to make it about his (possible) skin colour. Not understanding that the royal family works so that the grandchildren of the king/queen is protected, but not the great grandchildren. William and Kate's kids are protected because they are the children of a future king. Eugene and Beatrice were protected because they were the queens grandchildren, now the kings nieces. Their children will not be protected. Had Meghan waited until now, Archie would have gotten the protection nescessary, as Archie now is the grandchild of the regent. Archie's protection up until now was dependant upon Harry's prescence in his life.

Then she mentions there is no mental help available, and that she's told to just suck it up. Which she might have been, but the lack of mental help is not true. Both Diana and Harry have been in therapy, to the public's knowledge. She then further shits on Kate, and Harry just sits there quietly accepting it, even though everyone know that Kate was very important for Harry's own mental health when he was younger. He's even said so himself before meeting her.

But alright, a confused american girl thrust in to a world her husband is giving her no help to navigate in, I'm sure it can all be forgiven if Harry just thinks to hire a Princess Coach. Or maybe if they spend more time with Fergie to learn about the pitfalls of being the evil bitch married to the spare, she'll eventually realise that there is a hope to save all of this, right?

Not so. Instead they go and do the Netflix series. Where she spends her time pointing out what a good person she is, who understands cultural differences based on her being half black and thus having been around different backgrounds, and then bashes the royal family for not understanding her.What she seems to fail to understand is that unlike in America, where blacks were forced to come and be slaves (which of course was horrible), she is willingly entering an establishment, in a country with very different social norms. So when she tries to be all "relatable" and tells people she's a "hugger", trying to make fun of Kate and William for being stiff as a board when she, a complete stranger, hugs them the first time they meet, she fails to understand that we just don't do that here in Europe. (Or maybe in Southern Europe, but despite it's location England is pretty much Northern Europe, as we are cold people, stiff as boards even among friends.) This thing about hugging our friends and telling them we love them is something the lower classes have adopted from watching american TV, not the upper classes that she married in to. She is trying to appeal to the sympathies of an american audience here, not a european one, which just comes off as even more culturally insensitive on her part. And yet, she has the nerve to accuse Brits of being the culturally insenstivie one. The impression that she's the one who is culturally insenstitive here is further helped by the way she points out that Fergie was panicking that she didn't know how to courtsey the Queen, or that it was even expected of her to do so when meeting, but saying she thought it was all for show when the cameras were around.

It all just comes off as a whiny "why don't they love me, even though I shit on their culture and trashtalk them as often as I can? Boohoo, my life in my giant mansion is so hard because I'm black, and not because I'm an entitled brat who even passes so well as white that most people were surprised to hear that my mother is black". It's like she's completely out of touch with reality.

And don't even get me started on how Harry went from a cheeky, naughty fun and relaxed member of the royal family, cracking jokes in interviews and being genuinely likeable, to a stiff, weird, boring serious and unlikeable parody of his father.

(And for the record, I'm not british nor a royalist)

[ukrfeminism]

Violet felt misunderstood and invisible when she was at school, as though teachers did not care or believe in her. She was permanently excluded aged 16, just before her GCSEs. 

Racial injustice could have been to blame. New research from the charity Agenda Alliance has revealed that girls from a Black Caribbean background are excluded from school at double the rate of white girls.

A freedom of information request to the Department for Education found that in the 2021/2022 academic year, white girls were excluded at a rate of 0.06. That equates to six exclusions for every 10,000 pupils.

Black Caribbean girls were excluded at a rate of 0.12, while it was even higher for girls of a mixed white and Black Caribbean background at 0.14.

“Things were bad at school and sometimes things were bad at home but nobody ever gave me support,” Violet says. “When I was permanently excluded – just before my GCSEs – I didn’t know who I was going to be or what I’d do.

“I think there’s stigma around Black British girls. We’re treated differently with perceptions about us. We’re often punished just for being different. We get told off for the way uniforms look on our bodies, but they’re just not made for our body types and don’t fit us in the same way as white girls. 

“Also, sometimes Black girls just have an opinion and it’s then taken as aggressive, or we’re just labelled ‘rude’. I could do the same thing as a white girl and I would get in 10 times more trouble.”

Research from charity Voyage Youth, which tackles racial imbalance in London, has found that around 70% of students had never been consulted on policies that affect them in school.

School rules can be “overly oppressive of self-expression”, with beauty products and hair styling often come up as valid reasons for punishing young people. Voyage Youth has seen that exclusions are often fuelled by “huge misunderstandings and misconceptions about young people of colour”. 

Paul Anderson, the charity’s founder, explains that one of the key issues is ‘adultification’. He says: “Young people are mistreated as they are seen as mature, aggressive and more physical so their behaviours and actions are seen as intentional and not accidental.

“Many young people express they are not understood and valued by some teachers as many working in inner cities have no understanding of young peoples lived experiences, cultures, races and religions. This creates a disassociation and distance and can lead to teachers making recommendation to exclude due to a lack of understanding about diverse lives.”

Family background also plays a role – if parents are not present at school events, teachers might be able to “exploit this gap” and young people feel particularly targeted.

Anderson adds: “We are also concerned about new covert policies schools are also adopting such as managed moves. This is when one school partners with another to swap young people that are on the peripheries of exclusion. This helps them overcome being exposed as excludees.”

The situation is even worse for girls from Gypsy, Roma and Irish traveller girls, who are excluded at triple the rate of their white peers. 

Pauline Anderson, the chair of trustees at the Traveller Movement, says: “Schools are legally required to have behaviour policies in place that address race-based bullying, yet these educational institutions are continuing to fail to protect our children. 

“We need to see a zero-tolerance policy for racist bullying in schools from both pupils and staff. For our young girls, the combined discrimination of racism and ableism as well as sexism has a detrimental impact on them.”

Agenda Alliance is calling for schools to adopt improved behavioural policies, addressing how gender and racial stereotypes are disproportionately impacting girls. 

The charity wants all specialist staff working with children at risk of exclusion to have better training that is aware of how culture, gender, age and experiences of trauma might impact behaviour. 

Agenda Alliance also warns thatresponses to high rates of absenteeism “must avoid unnecessarily punitive approaches”, and instead work to address the root causes of girls’ absence from school alongside girls and specialist organisations that support them.

I ndy Cross, Chief Executive of Agenda Alliance, says: “These are extremely worrying findings. We are calling for zero tolerance to harmful behaviour policies which blight girls’ futures. We know schools do a tough job and that teachers are hard pressed. But by the government’s own measure, girls at the sharpest end of disadvantage are being set up to fail.

“Racial and gender stereotypes have no place in today’s education for young women. Enough is enough. No more excuses that poverty also inevitably jeopardises education. We can – and must – do better than this.”

Alba Kapoor, Head of Policy at the Runnymede Trust adds: “These disturbing statistics reflect the racism that continues to pervade every aspect of our school system. That girls from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds are being disproportionately punished and marginalised as a result, is something that needs to urgently be addressed.” 

“That’s why we are calling on schools to implement a temporary halt on school exclusions, and to instead prioritise non-punitive, proactive approaches which actually address harm. This would of course need meaningful investment in education from the government.

“It will take whole-school approaches to root out racism, and embed anti-racism throughout school cultures, policies and curricula. This means improving racial literacy amongst teachers, broadening the curriculum to help students learn about race, migration and Empire, and doing away with discriminatory policies which disproportionately target Black and minority ethnic children.”

Fatima Ahmed, helpline coordinator at Southall Black Sisters, says: “In my experience, young black girls who have approached our services often struggle to remain focused or remain in schools at all due to their multi-faceted and consistent experiences of racial injustice. For example, those who experience violence at home or in any other setting are less likely to directly approach their schools for support, which is why they may approach a local domestic abuse agency to advocate on their behalf. 

“There is no one proven way to challenge racial injustice in schools as, often, it depends on the school’s geographical location and willingness of institutions to prioritize the experiences of young black girls subject to racial injustice. One suggestion would be to take a synergistic approach by bringing together teachers, counsellors, and safeguarding professionals to create tools to tackle structural racism and embed racial injustice awareness into every subject possible.”

Violet was referred to the charity Milk Honey Bees who offered support and empowered her to be herself. The charity supports Black girls who have been excluded and those who are at risk of exclusion and sees stories like Violet’s far too often. 

Ebinehita Iyere, founder and managing director of Milk Honey Bees, says: “In my experience as a practitioner, racial biases are applied resulting in harsher punishment for things such as uniform or lateness. 

“As an organisation, we are calling for support from policymakers, schools, funders and our wider community to understand and foster positive relationships between teachers and Black girls to stop them being marginalised by the education system. 

“Only a joined up therapeutic approach will work. Creating safe spaces for Black girls to heal from their traumatic schooling experiences must be a priority, in order to prevent further risk of exclusion.”

With the right support, Violet found hope for her future. She says: “I got referred to Milk Honey Bees who worked with me and reassured me that it’s okay to be myself, without judging me from stuff on my form but going off my relationship with them. Now I see there’s a lot more I can offer in the world but, at school when I was excluded, I felt like if my school has given up on me, why should I believe in myself?”

[skaruresonic]

No one tell those people that african tribes regularly practices slavery amongst one another, and the trans atlantic slave trade got kicked off in the first place because europeons decided to aggressively and proactively exploit the supply of slaves they were being provided from trading with african nations.

Shock of shocks, when you take people who lives hundreds of years ago in drastically different environments and hold them up to modern first world american moral standards, they end up seeming a little bit fucked up in comparison. Wowowow! What are you, 12? Did you just discover that santa claus doesn't exist or something? "People who lived in the 1300s did a bad thing once >=o " holy fucking shit, you're blowing my mind!!!

People who talk about historical individuals or peoples as if they need to be judged as good or bad piss me off. Whether they're talking about the aztecs or fucking HP Lovecraft or whatever. It really just contributes nothing to the discussion and cataloging of historical facts. "Pol Pot was a very bad man >=c " that's nice sweety, we're trying to document and discuss what he did and said though, you're not really helping anymore when that's all you have to say about it.

No one tell those people that african tribes regularly practices slavery amongst one another, and the trans atlantic slave trade got kicked off in the first place because europeons decided to aggressively and proactively exploit the supply of slaves they were being provided from trading with african nations.

It's all about context and extent. The colonists arrived here and originally sent Indians as slaves to the Caribbean before they went to Africa because, at the time, we were the nearest natural resource on hand. The problem is, then, the underlying belief that regards people as a resource to be consumed. It requires the stratification of society into Resource or Person.

While this belief is definitely not unique to one culture, it was the colonists who employed it on a mass scale.

While I'm not entirely comfortable comparing the selling of our people as slaves to the transatlantic slave trade, it seems to have impacted our culture, to the point where I suspect the word for "to betray" holds the root for "to sell" for this very reason. And yes, that is because some of our own sold others of our own. That is an unfortunate fact.

Remember what I said about our struggles not being so different from others'? They also share common roots. The one drop rule contends that if you have just one drop of Black ancestry in you, you are Black. This was used, historically, to justify the slavery of generations into perpetuity.

Blood quantum is the same process but thrown in reverse: the blood of other races dilutes your own, and there will be a point where the Indian will be bred out of you and your children will no longer be considered of your people. This is still in use today for tribal enrollment requirements, and becomes an increasing problem as families grow and the chances of inbreeding increase. This was absolutely by design in order to make us disappear.

Both of these ideas may seem in opposition to each other at first glance, when really, they're intertwined: the result of white supremacy attempting to control us. They rest on the same underlying ideas of denying people the right to self-determination.

---

Shock of shocks, when you take people who lives hundreds of years ago in drastically different environments and hold them up to modern first world american moral standards, they end up seeming a little bit fucked up in comparison. Wowowow! What are you, 12? Did you just discover that santa claus doesn't exist or something? "People who lived in the 1300s did a bad thing once >=o " holy fucking shit, you're blowing my mind!!!

The thing is, people weren't always barbaric in the past. That's my entire point. It's a fallacy to assume modernity is synonymous with civility and progress.

I just get chuffed about it because they always bring up the scalpings and the human sacrifice and warring tribes and whatever else in order to paint our ancestors as morally gray. However, you need some light to balance out the darkness in order to paint a truly gray portrait. They never say anything about the Longhouse, the Great Law of Peace, the Two-Row wampum, the times our people saved colonists from starvation or slaughter, or the inter-tribal alliances we made. It's just, "they cut the tops of people's heads off omg so brutal" as if they're saying anything particularly new or revolutionary, and they leave the matter at that.

In fact, the Haudenosaunee were not the only peaceful coalition the Skarù·ręʔ were a part of---we made a smaller alliance of mutual protection with two or three other tribes down in North Carolina as well.

The omission of our merits and the constant attention to our bloodier histories just feeds into this hateful stereotype that we were always savages.

---

Also, I didn't address it in the earlier post, but OP essentially went on to imply that white supremacy isn't a real problem. Rather, they waxed lyrical on some overreductive, strawman-nihilist "Rousseau was wrong" bullshit about how war will always exist in complex societies and it isn't unique to white supremacy.

First of all, nobody was saying violence or imperialism are white-only things. To argue otherwise is to imply other people don't know their own histories. Or other countries' histories.

Second, the existence of the Haudenosaunee contradicts this narrative that humanity is so inherently belligerent that reconciliation is just a pipe dream in "complex" societies. We operated just fine in peace for literal centuries before colonial contact. Either you don't consider us a "complex" society, or you have an incomplete view of history.

Third, white supremacy is very much real, and it is a problem that impacts a large number of people, white people included.

Again, the US as it exists today largely does so because of white supremacy. It is a direct result of Manifest Destiny and the assimilation and displacement of indigenous people. Trying to divert the conversation by pretending what was said was that all violence is innate to whiteness is a strawman of the argument, as well as deliberately being obtuse in order to distract with meaningless asides. It'll only make people go, "Oh well, everyone was shitty in the past, so I guess there's no reason to try to understand the structures my ancestors put into place and how they might benefit or hurt others to this day."

Of course violence has existed in every society. Of course it will continue to exist in some fashion. But that doesn't mean we can't take steps to curb it and discourage it whenever possible.

Moreover, our ancestors having scalped someone 200 years ago doesn't mean anything when blood quantum still exists on the books in order to "breed" the Indian out of us and have us forfeit the land to the government, you know what I mean? I would think the more pressing and far-reaching problem rests on the colonist structures that are still in operation today, and it is worth examining where those structures came from in order to dismantle them.

And look, I don't particularly enjoy waxing poetic about this stuff because it's not something I like looking directly in the face for long periods of time. As a white-passing Native, I know I'm not the hardest-impacted by these things. I'll never experience the harshest brunt of the racism my darker-skinned friends, family, and neighbors do.

That doesn't mean I experience No Racism Ever, of course. But I recognize that most of the fucked-up-ness of the situation and my relative comfort comes from the fact that my incidental whiteness inoculates me from a lot of bullshit I would otherwise experience.

[neechees]

I have decided to ask you this as someone who happens to be adopted: Is the concept of adoption inherently bad? Does it do more harm than good? I just want to make sure to check my facts.

I want to say the concept of adoption itself isn't bad, not inherently. Adoption also features prominently in my culture, traditionally (Crees will literally adopt anyone, even if they are not orphaned. Talk to a Cree & there's a good chance they have a family member who's not biologically related to them but were adopted in. We'll adopt YOU), & for lack of a better term it was considered a "sin" & socially unacceptable for an orphaned child to go unadopted within a community, so SOMEBODY would always take up in raising them. As mentioned earlier, "adoption" for Crees also exists outside of people (children) being orphaned, & Crees would adopt each other as family pretty frequently.

But I think the foster care & adoption system is deeply flawed. There's a lot of cogs working together in bad ways. A lot of kids of color (especially Black and Native kids) are deliberately taken away from their families without reason, usually under the guise of their parents not being "fit" to raise them, & then can be put up for adoption by White families, that's done purposely by governments & is a form of genocide. There is also people who get into foster care specifically to exploit the kids for money, or sympathy (like on social media), or for other terrible reasons. & that's just a couple of facets. Adoption can also be a traumatizing experience for some people, and of course there's the issue of orphaned teenagers not being considered as "desirable" for adoption as babies or very young children, so they stay in orphanages/foster homes until legal age & then get kicked out, often resulting in them becoming homeless, which the government does NOT try to help.

There's obviously more to it than this, but long story short: is adoption inherently bad? No, I think it can be very good in a lot of ways. But a lot of the systems we have in place for adoption aren't good.

[boonoonoonus]

American White Religious trauma as a result of Christianity is so annoying because it pervades all discussions of religion generally. That even when religion is used as a motif, it's always assumed to be an allegory to Christianity. (The American evangelical kind or rarely Catholicism) And in fandom, this sentiment is worse. Don't you know religion is bad, duh!

The issue with this is when you put a lens of intersectionality (specifically as a black femme) or you use a lens of assemblage (non black femme) then you get the understanding that the issues non white people have with religion is not the issues White people have. Christianity is Hinky because of its roots in colonial rhetoric and justification, but that's not the issues white people have with Christianity. (This is not to say that exploitation of children and women but churches aren't egregious - they are. But this, conversion isn't about that) its like the anti-religious sentiment is spread everywhere affecting Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Rastas and more, everyone is just catching stray bullets. Religion has to be bad for the non right wing American people, but so much of the good of religion is lost in that discussion. Also there's never the nuance to say hey maybe religion is funked up because America is fucked up? People do fucked up things and try to justify it by any means? Its hard because I grew up religious, left the church and now I'm very much into taking what I need spiritually from wherever, and to be honest that may be the privilege of my culture. But church was a necessary ecosystem and solace many a time, just as mosque was and I think what's scary is that because White people by and by don't really cultivate community and social culture (argue with your mum not me) the social aspect of religion and religious community isn't extended out? Take for example the Sikhs of my local area also give food from the Langar of our local gurdwara and I've known alot of these aunties and uncles since I was a babe. I've eaten there as has so many other homeless people and local business people etc because the food is good, the music bops and the jokes are hilarious. We're community. And when the time comes now at different parts of the year to give back we do, we have to because we're in community. It's mad in my eyes to have all this discourse on religion and never speak of the good things. No one ever talks of breaking fast with friends from school and how exciting it is to be invited round for iftar, or making eid cards at getting to celebrate, giving gifts at Christmas or making gingerbread etc with other people or singing carols. It's always about the fuckeries of religion and never that when people who have little else but God, do amazing things with wonder and hope. Granted, all of this was the privilege of living in a town outside of America that whilst was very small was incredibly diverse and maybe the fact that America is a continent disguised as a country with racial segregation still likely plays a massive part in the PR for christinanity? I say this because the Black church never gets its dues for what it did for the Black community in America and that's probably because overwhelmingly the PR for Christianity in America is White and right wing likely. Like what about Rasta's with political liberty in Jamaica and the Caribbean or Hinduism for the Tamil is religion just white people and Christianity?

Ultimately, I want to have a discussion about it without that specific white lens because religion for us who were colonised and dispossed is completely different.

Still, the general consensus in fandom that all religions are bad by virtue of whitenessess relationship with Christianity is absolutely mad, but what do I know?

I'm a black person on the Internet.

[bilbobagginsomebabez]

i love kendrick lamar so much for how clearly he sees rap and how intentional his actions are when it comes to upholding and honoring it. the drake diss saga is so fascinating to me because that's exactly what he did AGAIN.

rap is the most intellectual and literary genre of music because in no other genre does the musician also assume the role of speaker, of orator. it's a speech that's also a poem that's also a song that's also often a history--a tool to raise consciousness, to give voice to and teach its information-starved people what harm was done and sometimes chart a path to undoing it. and you can dance to it! it's multipurposed and embedded in the daily life of the culture that created it, using the full complexity of music as technology for a communication highway. if rap was a car and i slapped it on the hood, it would be to express "there's so much going on under here, i don't think anybody understands all of it, but goddamn does she go so so so fucking fast." I genuinely believe that we should respect and interact with it as an oral history tradition. perhaps early in its development, but it's not just another type of music.

and lamar loves rap like rap loves lamar; rap is his perfect ecological niche and his presence strengthens the ecosystem in turn. in interviews, he talks about the wordplay, assembling bars and songs like puzzles, literally playing with the meanings and how the words influence each other. embedding different messages that require you to listen to it over and over to catch all the meanings, that require it to age with along you and accrue its true depth in your mind as you accrue experience and comprehension. i couldn't imagine a more involved and complex demonstration of pure literary skill or a mind more suited to take the challenge and treat it like his elementary school playground.

whole fuckin books could be written about Euphoria, Meet the Grahams, and Not like Us individually. like Not Like Us is the least complex of all of them and it's STILL this perfect distillation of the soul of hiphop. a club track on a classic west coast beat denouncing an injustice/exploitation and affirming the values of its people while describing and educating on a historical context of extraction. the others hit a different height of the genre or create a new one. euphoria is a classically great song that gets better in the aftermath of the battle when lines that didn't make sense are revealed to be direct statements about future events. the complexity of the wordplay and the strategy it describes epitomize the competitiveness and sport of the genre.

in meet the grahams, kendrick invented the epistolary diss in order to double a diss track as an evocation of Black generational trauma. he ripped drake's character to shreds by addressing every member of his family and explaining the ways in which uniquely Black trauma that drake ignores and preys on and extracts is destroying his own soul and his family. how his lack of respect and connection to his people translate to a lack of respect and connection to himself, to disconnection from his children that they will have to puzzle over and recover from in their own adulthood. demonstrating its cyclical nature, and how vicious that cycle is. enunciating through drake the step by step process of generational trauma caused by rejection and alienation, building a bed of empathy and comprehension for the listener while denouncing drake for the cowardice and betrayal of his response to it, for his selfishness and decision to hand the trauma down again. by addressing it first to adonis, showing both how necessary and culturally embedded it is to step in and provide mentorship when parents are dropping the ball.

a lot of the reactions were almost scared by it and immediately distanced themselves from it. someone on dead end hip hop said "he's talking directly to drake, he's not talking to us anymore." (around the same time as he had his head in his hands and said "i think this might help this dude.... later" which made me laugh so hard i cried.) but kendrick is so much smarter than that. it's not just for drake. it's a mirror to the pain and dissonance that made drake, the culture that allowed drake, and the living futures he and men like him destroy.

and i haven't even talked about the music. how embedded his music is in Black art, how he pulls forward greats from previous musical eras like George Clinton and embeds the literal soundscape of Black musical history. it's incredible. this isn't to say other genres of music are worse in any way. music doesn't need to be a song that's also 17 other things in a trench coat. rap just did something else that we haven't begun to really take stock of. and tbh i think it's fun to have somebody run circles around you when you can admire the sheer awe-inspiring skill of the loops.

[tiredsunrisesmeta]

On Viren, Evil Queens & Queer Coded Villains

In an interview with Cartoon Universe titled Season 3, Runaans Plan, and Aaravos Speech! The Dragon Prince Interview with Creators, Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond, talked about how an early concept for The Dragon Prince that they played with was the idea of “not evil step mother” (around the 26:35 mark).

This could relate to the creators’ desires to showcase non-traditional families and not to demonize stepparents. Harrow, for example, while keeping an unfortunate distance from Callum, is a loving stepdad. However, so far in The Dragon Prince we haven’t encountered a stepmother, good or evil. My theory is that “not an evil stepmother” relates to Viren.

In many ways, Viren epitomizes the evil queen/evil stepmother archetype. In fact, there are numerous scenes and aspects of Viren that directly parallel famous evil queens and stepmothers. Here are just some of the examples:

1.     Like the Evil Queen in Snow White Viren has a magic mirror that he demands answers from. Mysterious all-knowing beings inside the mirrors answer back.

2.     Viren orders his own “huntsman” (Soren) to kill a royal heir (Ezran) that has a deep connection to animals. Soren like the Huntsman can’t bring himself to kill the young royal. 

3.     Viren's green voice stealing spell is an obvious reference to Ursula's voice stealing spell in The Little Mermaid.

4.     Like Mother Gothel in Tangled and Queen Ravenna in Snow White and the Huntsman, Viren hides his true appearance (which is “ugly” and scary) with glamour magic where he takes the life force of younger, beautiful beings and uses them to keep an attractive appearance.

5.     Viren also shares visual similarities with the Evil Queen, Cinderella’s stepmother and Maleficent such as their circle jewel pendant, dramatic collar, black and purple colors, staffs, their scowls, postures, & attitudes.

6.     Like Cinderella’s stepmother Viren has two children that are kind of dopes & are sometimes mean to the princes. He expects a lot from them.

7.     Viren's magic is often visually like evil queens' magic, both are presented as dark & disturbing. 

8.     Like Viren, evil queens make magic with suspicious, “disgusting” ingredients & cast spells w/ staffs. Both seem to take from nature & threaten & exploit youthful & natural "innocence."

I would argue that Viren was the “not evil stepmother” that was one of the starting ideas behind The Dragon Prince. He’s technically not one because he’s a man. But he embodies the role in significant ways. For me, this is another layer that adds to Viren’s queer coding. (If you want to read the other parts of my Viren is Queer analysis, you can read them here (Part 1) and here (Part 2). Here’s why:

Evil queens & villains specifically in Disney films have over time been adopted by the LGBTQ+ community. Intentional or not these characters are popularly thought of as queer coded or as having queer appeal. In his book Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out, Sean Griffin writes "gay culture seems to have a special fondness for Disney villainy. [...] the number of gay men who dress in drag as Disney villains for costume parties or for Halloween testifies to the attraction that these characters have in gay culture". 

Griffin posits that there are two reasons why queer audiences gravitate towards these villains. The first reason is the exaggerated, unconventional way villains perform their gender in contrast to the more traditional gender performances of the heroes. They bring attention to gender itself as performance & thus take on qualities of camp & drag. This connection to drag was made explicit in Disney's The Little Mermaid when it's villain Ursula was modeled after the famous drag queen Divine.

Female villains like evil queens & stepmothers often have strong sharp facial and body features in contrast to the heroine's soft features. They wear visible makeup as opposed to the heroines’ more "natural" beauty. They are audacious, sassy, powerful & imposing in contrast to the more demure, modest heroines. Many evil queens are motivated by the pursuit of beauty that remains out of their reach such as the Evil Queen, Ursula, & Mother Gothel. While Viren isn’t motivated by the pursuit of beauty, vanity and physical appearance are important enough to his character to warrant nods such as his glamour spells, obsession with mirrors & fancy clothes, almost as if the show is aware of the tradition Viren borrows from.

The camp & the theatricality of gender expression of male Disney villains are often shown via their archness, sassiness, foppishness, particularly fancy sense of style, & impeccable overly cultured manners, speech & mannerisms. They're often "represented as using their cultured dandyism to hide their evil design[s]". Viren borrows heavily from Jafar & Scar. Jafar & Viren both have magic staffs, snake motifs, and even have parrots in common. Like Jafar, Viren is his monarch's most trusted magical advisor who ultimately betrays him. Like Scar, Viren is a usurper. Griffin writes "Both [Scar & Jafar] are overly refined, fey and seething with frustration for feeling that their talents and abilities have been overlooked." That’s literally Viren! Scar & Jafar were notably designed by out gay character designer Andreas Deja. Griffin writes that in an interview "Deja admits to conceiving of [Jafar] as a gay man “to give him his theatrical quality, his elegance.” It is these characters’ qualities & legacies that Viren borrows from.

Griffin writes "Traditionally, Disney’s animated villains move and speak with enormous style and panache—so much so that they often “steal” the scenes from the supposed leading characters in the stories. In this way, they more overtly “overperform” their gender roles and readily become the targets of camp readings." I would argue Viren fits this description. He too can be audacious, imposing, & occasionally sassy. He's impeccably well dressed (Amaya even derisively comments on the fanciness of his clothes) & seemingly impeccably well mannered. Theatricality & performance play into Viren’s role as a manipulator and persuader. He uses his panache, speech, & manners to seduce people to his point of view or at least he tries to. This contrasts him against the earnestness of the heroes.

This takes us to the second reason why queer audiences gravitate & identify with Disney villains. According to Griffin "on a more basic level, gay culture’s appreciation of Disney villains is a humorous cheering on of those forces within the narrative that disrupt and frustrate heterosexuality’s dominance.”

Examples of this are Evil Queens trying to separate young heterosexual couples such as Ursula & Mother Gothel. Griffin uses Maleficent as an example: "Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent actively works to spoil two generations of heterosexual coupling. […] During [the] overtly narrated introduction, strong emphasis is placed on procreation, particularly on the king and queen’s difficulties in having a child. The story proper begins with the countrywide celebration of the birth of the princess Aurora. When Maleficent arrives, she is informed quite bluntly that she is “not wanted.” Maleficent retaliates by placing a death sentence on the child to be fulfilled on her sixteenth birthday. In this way, she attempts to take away the procreative success of the king and queen and kill the princess just at the moment when she herself would be about to explore heterosexual courtship."

Similarly, Jafar actively tries to separate Aladdin & Jasmine as opposed to the benevolent campy & queer coded Genie who uses his powers to bring Aladdin & Jasmine together. Of Scar, Griffin writes: "The most obvious gay figure in the film is the villainous lion Scar, voiced by Jeremy Irons, who archly portrays a physically weak male who makes up for his lack of sheer strength with catty remarks and invidious plotting. Animated by Deja, the character fairly swishes, disdaining the concept of the heterosexual family in his attempt to usurp the throne for himself." Scar "refuses to support the heterosexual patriarchy that Simba and his father represent" & challenges its dominance by killing the patriarch Mufasa & preventing Simba from gaining his rightful place on the throne with Nala as his queen by his side. Scar is contrasted by Zazu, Timone, & Pumba (all campy & queer coded too) who support Simba's divine right to rule.

So how does Viren "disrupt and frustrate heterosexuality’s dominance" when he himself used to have a wife & has two children? Firstly, he is a divorced single father. While that in of itself does not code him as queer it does preclude him from the ideal patriarchal, heterosexual nuclear family. It also complicates Viren’s status & role within Katolis Castle in relation to King Harrow (a single father himself) & his family. In Callum’s Spellbook, Callum writes “Lord Viren and his children, Claudia and Soren, were kind of like my second family.” Thus, once Queen Sarai dies, Viren becomes the only other quasi parental figure to Callum and Ezran & becomes the closest adult to Harrow living in the castle. Viren is placed in a unique position that is much like a “stepmother”. (I suspect this subtext is one of the reasons why the theory that Viren murdered Sarai persists despite little evidence for it).

If looked through the narrative framework of the evil queen/stepmother trope, Viren and Harrow’s relationship takes on a symbolically queer quality. Viren essentially acts as Harrow’s second “wife” and second “queen”. Their families co-inhabit the castle & Viren has ready access to Harrow’s private rooms and occupies them with familiarity. In their first scene, Viren enters Harrow’s bedroom & wakes him. He is the first-person Harrow sees when he wakes up, symbolic of how a wife would be the first person a husband sees upon waking, or how Sarai used to be the first person Harrow saw.

What really drives home Viren occupying the archetypical role of evil queen/stepmother is how Viren connects with queens in The Dragon Prince itself. In flashbacks, Viren’s story connects him tragically to the queens of Duren who he tried but failed to save & to Queen Sarai who saved him at the cost of her life. He lives, they die. Viren carries out their legacy when he casts the Magma Titan Heart spell & ends the famine. Later in the narrative Viren is challenged by Queen Aanya & the Sunfire queen.

The parallels and connections between Viren and Queen Sarai are the most telling (In addition to the parallels I explore in my other analysis). The first parallel is in their respective first scenes. In her first scene, Sarai stands on a balcony alongside a newly coronated Harrow, looking out at the citizens of Katolis. The King and Queen gaze upon their shared kingdom. Similarly, by the end of Viren’s first scene he too stands on a balcony alongside Harrow as they look out at the land of Katolis, like two co-rulers. 

The second parallel is that both Viren and Sarai pose for portraits with Harrow. Sarai's portrait is an intimate, family portrait but a subtly royal one. They pose on a dais between their respective thrones, clear symbols of royal power. For the second more official portrait, Harrow invites Viren to join in on this expression of royal power by inviting him on to the dais, between the same two thrones. When Sarai leaves the throne room with her children, Viren bows to her then takes up her place beside Harrow (though on the left side as opposed to Sarai being on the right). Viren becomes more than a servant, he visually takes on the role of co-ruler and co-royal, the role of a Queen.

After Harrow’s death Viren further frustrates heterosexual dominance by becoming a usurper. Traditionally, evil queens/stepmothers are framed as usurping the role of queen and mother from the protagonist’s biological, dead mother. When their husbands/kings die, they take sole control & power of their kingdom/household, power that is not "rightfully theirs".

Viren becomes a usurper when he tries to get himself coronated as regent (& later takes the crown in Book 3) and attempts to have the princes assassinated. Furthermore, he tells Soren that he will be next in line and will become king once Viren is dead. Viren is essentially making his children the heirs of Harrow instead of Harrow’s own child with Sarai. He spoils & challenges the concept of heterosexual marriage & family much like many evil queens & figures like Scar & Jafar. It's a rather uncomfortable, potentially homophobic trope if presented at face value with no subversion. This discomfort extends to Viren’s "death".

Disney villains that transgress & disrupt traditional idealizations of gender & sexuality are almost always defeated by young heterosexual love. It is no coincidence that Viren’s “death” has many of the same tropes as Evil Queen deaths. He falls to his death like the Evil Queen, Maleficent, and Mother Gothel. In the face of their deaths Snow White & The Prince ride off into the sunset. Aurora & Prince Philip dance the night away. Rapunzel & Eugene fight off Mother Gothel, save each other & kiss. Similarly, Rayla goes down with Viren off a cliff (just prior Viren was consuming the lifeforce of an innocent baby with the help of Aaravos, with whom he has a coded & charged relationship). Callum saves Rayla by declaring his love & unlocking a new magic flying ability all while Viren plunges to his death. Rayla declares her love too & they share a kiss. Young heterosexual love triumphs yet again.

In most fairy tale media this is the end for the Evil Queen. But The Dragon Prince subverts this by reviving Viren which opens the possibility of a new direction for his character. Ultimately, there's a reason why a sizeable part of the self-proclaimed Viren fandom tend to interpret Viren as bisexual, gay, or queer. His character borrows heavily from a history & tradition of queer coded villainy. Hopefully, this unique queer appeal of Viren is still a part of him & his story in the next seasons.

[beardedmrbean]

Thank you sorry if it sound cringey

In a ac bureau, Yasuke was looking over the battlefield he was going to go to. Then Naoi came in

“Yasuke, we need to talk.” Naoi said

“Later.” The African said

But when he turned around Naoi had her blade pointed at him

“Now.” The Shinobi said

Yasuke let out a sigh

“What is it?” Yasuke asked

“You only been in japan for 3 years but you want to protect it and unify it. Why? You saw what your old master did to the Buddhist temple, yet you will continue his vision?” Naoi pointed out

Yasuke glared at the Shinobi, he visited the temple sight and even saw a vision of the burning thanks to the strange artifact.

“Yes, I seen what Oda done, but Naoi ever left Japan?” Yasuke asked

The Shinobi thought about it

“No, but what have you seen?” Naoi asked

“It not exactly paradise here either, but all my life I was bound to iron chains and collars. Most of the children I knew died from disease and hunger from their bastards masters.” Yasuke stated

“I was the only survivor of a slave ship where everyone I know and loved was slaughtered. Until I ended up in Japan I had nothing.” Yasuke stated

“Oda brought me in, he trained me. The children of Osaka asked me if I was made of the sweet they once had called chocolate. The little ones constantly asked me to pick them up.

“But why to why I want to unify Japan? The European powers are growing, they are exploiting the kingdoms of Americas in their desires to colonized them. And if we don’t unify Japan soon. The Templars will destroy your people and cultures the same way they done to countless others.” Yasuke pointed out

Naoi was pondering, she heard of the corruption of the Templars be it from the late Borgias. The Europeans assassins told me of what horror they seen freeing slave trips

“So you want to protect Japan, even if you will not be remembered?” Naoi asked

“I have nothing to go back to Naoi, Japan is my home. And I’m going to make sure no Japanese child will ended up in chains like I did. I’m also want to protect the rest of the Oda clan, beside I got unfinished business with Mitsuhide.” Yasuke said

Naoi was stunned she never thought why Yasuke was so devoted in protecting Japan. Until now, but there was a underlying issue at hand

“Yasuke, there are talks among the Tokugawas that after they unified Japan. No gajins will be allowed on the land.” Naoi pointed out

“Yes I know, but if I have to leave Japan, it will be after the land is secure. Though perhaps they will make an exception for a Shinigami.” Yasuke said then put on infamous oni mask

Oh last year a Ubisoft writer “accidentally” leaked the image of the female Shinobi https://x.com/AccessTheAnimus/status/1715878544570523848?s=20

I was also thinking about Yasuke wearing something like this over the story https://www.guardiansvaultaustralia.com/crimson-guardian-oni-mask-japanese-demon-facemask/

Now I get ever panic after rings of power black elf bs, but I think it can work. But as a black person I can explain more about my issues with black rep in pop culture

I like this character design, what I can see of it at least.

Love the Oni mask too, it's creepy and awesome.

Whole thing reads just fine, not sure they'd use the phrase "The African" but that's minor.

It seems like a good setup for the whole thing to me, if you're off the mark no worries at all AO3 exists and you can make it whatever you like it to be.

That's one of the nice things about imagination and such

[notmuchtoconceal]

bro, i really wanna talk about ian and mickey from shameless cause it's one of the only long-term onscreen romances which has ever felt viscerally real to me, tho also -- i have mixed feelings about shameless generally, for it's an americanization of a foreign property which hooked me for its direct proximity to and immersion in my local culture, though also -- that direct proximity highlights certain unrealities of the broadcast medium more generally, namely that like -- bro, these neighborhoods. these areas. they're not this fuckin white.

the southside of chicago has not been this white since my parents were kids. bro, i had to listen to my mother bitch on long car rides about how polish and irish the neighborhood used to be when she was a kid, before you know ... the mexicans moved in. meanwhile, my father is half-mexican. it's just his mother was as covert narc assimilationist bruja who ate his soul so he had to soak up all the racial inferiority installs in lieu of developing a personality. yeah, man. be a trumper. build the wall. that your own people work harder and cheaper than you is the problem, not the extant system of financial exploitation pressured you to be a work-drone over withstanding the battery of persuing an education.

bro, when you fucking live in these places and see how people are, and you're sitting there watching this enticing fantasy, it's like -- you're thinking about these white actors from some other place coming in, with a production crew, and you wonder if the crew is local, how much is out of sight, how is this exchange of labor taking place, blah blah.

like, there's one black character on the show. there's one black character, and sometimes you'll see black extras in the background, but they're not extras. they're the people who live in these neighborhoods, sitting on their porches, watching the show being filmed -- being included in the shot and not making too much of a fuss.

she's real good, don't get me wrong.

their next-door neighbor, she's great. i haven't watched the show in years, and I don't remember their names. i love her boyfriend, too. her boyfriend, he's perfect. i don't know where he's from, but he captures the same vibe as my childhood best friend and their dynamic is great. total southside vibes. it's real, like ian and mickey's relationship is real and it buoys you through what appears as a demographic anachronism.

so, yeah, the show is extra weird cause it hits so close.

like, it's deffo true that racial injustice is being more frequently insincerely weaponized to score purity points in a pick-me economy of abandoned children playing penance for the cameras to use your ego to distract you from the multiple concurrent genocides taking place rn, but like...

sometimes you're just trying to watch entertainment and how weird and fake it is is distracting in a way no good-faith suspension of disbelief can overcome cause it's baked into the economic realities of the production itself. you can see how it's trying to do good despite its limitations, but it can feel like an excuse in-defense of their complicity with the systems they're in and it would be complicity itself not to say so aloud.

like, when you live with people and see how the collective fantasy of white supremacy chops and dices their minds on the block, jiggling them into bits in a salad to be rearranged, oh my God bro.

i'm fuckin remembering when i was a teen and how all the cute lil brown boys and girls would attach themselves to me cause my gigantic towering pale tree body functioned like an apotropaic charm against the police, which they regarded not as protectors of their property rights, but state-controlled gangs who sometimes countered, sometimes collaborated with -- the local criminal gangs. it was as though i was a fanciful wizened oak or a maypole and the police were not guardians, but hostile elemental forces which at times were the lesser of two evils.

i don't think a white person can talk about white supremacy without it somehow being either a humblebrag or insincere fawning.

i think to frame this discussion as being about "white supremacy" is tricking you into thinking about the thing you wanna get away from.

don't know what this might reveal about differences in worldview.

remember other people are real humans with real feelings.

thank you.

[ariel-seagull-wings]

TOP 05 FAVORITE TYPES OF STORIES

@faintingheroine​ @storytellergirl​ @princesssarisa​ @softlytowardthesun​ @the-blue-fairie​ @themousefromfantasyland​ @superkingofpriderock​ @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark​ @captain-dad​ @angelixgutz​ @parxsisburning​ @amalthea9​ @darasuum​ @marquisedemasque​ @filmcityworld1​

01. The Search for the Lost Husband and The Persecuted Lady

Those are considered the two most widespread kind of folktales. What personally touches me the most about these stories is how they explore the resilience of its female heroines, wich we often underestimake as weakness in real life women.

The Search for the Lost Husband touches on the anxiety about arranged marriages, and how women feared they would be sold by their fathers to wild, monstrous beasts, specially because their husbands are full of secrets. Them the heroines break a taboo, discovering the secret, wich makes the husband depart full of fears and insecurity, while the heroine, having grown in love for the husband, reveals courage and confidence to go in a long, dangerous journey to, now in her own terms, win back her beloved. Rather than end the narrative with the marriage celebrations, this kind of story explores what it takes to keep the marriage.

The Persecuted Lady touches in the domestic drama of women who suffer familial abuse, be it the work force exploitation imposed by a stepmother, the appearance shaming imposed by a birth mother, the sexist neglect of a father or grandfather, or the sexual harassment committed by a father. In some tales, the heroines suffer in silence at their own homes, in others, usually under a disguise that makes her look ugly by societal standards (like a straw coat or an animal’s skin), she runs away and works in servitude in another place, also suffering abuse from the employers, until she has the chance to enjoy at least three festive occasions and catch the eyes of a handsome and young rich suitor (usually a Prince), who uses a piece of garment like a shoe or ring to identify the heroine and marry her. The heroine has a long time to cope with harsh situations, but keeps hopefull for better days, and finds the love and happiness that she didn’t had back at home.

My favorite Search for the Lost Husband tales are The Black Bull of Norroway, The Singing Springing Lark and The Iron Stove. My favorite Persecuted Lady tales are Dona Labismínia, Bicho de Palha, Maria Borralheira, Donkeyskin, Thousand Furs, Princess in a Leather Burqa, Florinda, The Three Sisters, The Tale of Popelka, Tattercoats and Cap’O Rushes.

02. The Story Inside the Story

This is when one character presents a fictional narrative to another character, and the narrative presented is just as engaging as the in universe “real” characters we have been accompanying. Sometimes the characters are just amusing themselves with a fun story, and other times the story has a thematic moral relevance to the “real life” situation they are living. The Story Inside the Story can take the form of A Book Within the Book, A Play Within the Play, A Movie Within the Movie, and so forward. The most famous example, and still my favorite, of Story Inside the Story is probably the One Thousand and One Nights book. Other famous examples include Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Giovanni Boccacio’s Decameron.

03. The Family Saga

When the story stars being about a character, them this character dies and we move on to see the story of that character’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, all the while we see their different points of view about the political, cultural and societal changes troughout history. My favorite Family Sagas are the myth of The Mahabharata, the myth of King Arthur, Shakespeare’s Henriad and Rose Tetralogy cycle of plays, Érico Veríssimo’s novel Time and the Wind and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.

04. The Band of Heroes in a Quest

A group of people who in normal circumstance unlikely would meet and talk to each other is united by fantastical circunstances to go on a quest. The object of the quest varies: it could be a treasure, a search for spiritual enlightment, save an innocent in distress, destroy a cursed artifact or eliminate an ancient evil and save the world they know from doom.

My favorite examples Band of Heroes in a Quest are probably the Vampire Hunters from Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, the Fellowship of the Ring from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novel and the Bronze Saints from Toei’s Saint Seiya anime.

05. Deal with the Devil

A human being who makes a deal, out of either desperation or pure ambition, promising his soul to the Devil. Sometimes the deal is selling the soul right away, other times the deal is a bet, where if the human fails at accomplishing a task, the Devil will take their soul  to suffer eternally in Hell. We accompany the main character’s journey as he asks: should I use what the Devil gaved me for my own benefit, or should I use it to help other people in need? If I use it to help people in need, so I am redeemed, or my deal with the Devil will forever tarnish me as an evil person? Was I wise in making this deal? Is the Devil truly evil, or is he just testing the evil I may have inside me?

There are two ways in wich this story ends: either the main character escapes with his soul redeemed (usually by a loophole in the contract) or he has sank so low in doing evil deeds that the Devil wins and takes his soul to Hell. The most famous example of a Deal with the Devil kind of story is the german myth of Doctor Faust.

[magnoliamyrrh]

like truly i find this americans generation insistance on this stupid idea that sex trafficking and talking about trafficking is conspiratorial propaganda so fucking gross and offensive and uncaring. bc its all satanist worshipping baby eating illuminati cults far right propaganda blah blah blah

neverminddd how this shit is offensive to hear as someone whose been through it, nevermind being from the balkans because the western europeans hold the exact same brainrot when it comes to us and our issues. american has a huge trafficking issue. absolutely huge. hell even our romanian women get trafficked to this place. california, south in particular, is one of the top states for trafficking if not the top, so idk what the fuck all these california ppl are running their mouth abt all these years (privilege)

and you know whose most impacted by sex trafficking in america, predictebly? women of colour. indigenous women and girls (high poverty rates in reservations, high rate of depression, alcholism, suicidality etc, racism, skrinking reservations etc. included in this issue the high rates of girls and women going missing and/or being killed on/near reservations), south america women and their children who may be trafficked at any point before they reach america, but also at the american border while they try to cross as some cayotes are sex traffickers (and bc of the poverty many immigrants and undocumented immigrants experience, as well as the lack of cultural knowledge making them even more vulnerable). Black women and girls from what i know are statistically hardest hit by the sex trafficking thing, some studies say at the same level as Indigenous women (40% of total both) because god knows this country hasn't dealt them enough hardship already; here all the same sort of factors are at play as in previous cases. The economically and racially disadvantaged, which live in a system which seeks to keep them down in a million ways and to exploit them continously, are hit hardest. Racial fetishization and degradion from johns and pimps also plays into this. All this is combined with the fact that bc its women and girls of colour, often police and media and society dont want to give a single shit - these cases and issues and this suffering goes unnoticed, unacknowledged, uncarwd for

Here's the thing. if this generation cared, theyd KNOW just how many trafficking cases come to light in california, in america. they would Know that every time they come out, many times many of the girls or women or both are of colour. They would Know that indigenous women are going missing at terrifying rates. they would know that most sex trafficking victims & (child) prostitutes are of colour. theyd know that most times when i see cases of american ex-prostitutes being assaulted or killed, theyre of colour. Many are white american girls as well, who also, big surprise, tend to come from the lower classes, the foster system, homelessness, abusive families, or other disadvantaged and vulnerable positions.

Except despite how damn woke this generation is and how everyone loves to pay lip service to "listen to marginalized women blah blah" "intersectionality blah blah blah" no one wants to give a shit about the whole damn sexual slavery issue this country has. and in fact they want to pretend it barely exists at all, the fabrication of republicans with their pizza gate. or they want to pretend it doesnt exist at all bc you see some well off onlyfans model said sex work is empowering and like most sex workers choose it so like you see like, its all good like, stop shaming sex workers like, stop, like, being so putitanical. jfccc

this. isnt feminism, its not intersectional feminism, its not any sort of feminism. its not any sort of woke or progressive or caring. this. its having the privilege of denying the uncomfortable reality which just so happens to hit societies most marginalized and vulnerable women and girls in one of the most horrifying ways. pretending like its conspirational propaganda is such a gross way to talk about this because outside of the general ignorance, it adds a layer of outright denying the severity of the pain and suffering at hand, on top of the sex work bullshit being pulled. wtf

[antihibikase2]

Hero Complex

Repost from Ao3. This was written before the past lives were established, around December 2021. Still, this technically falls under the rewrite!

As a child, Nate was fed the stories of heroes by his mother, who used to work as a Pokemon Center nurse.

She had heard tales of exploits from exemplary trainers back in her day, about how they risked their lives not only for people, but Pokemon as well.

How many of them would enter the Pokemon Center with injured Pokemon in their arms, disheveled and sleep deprived, but they held no concern for themselves; only for the helpless creatures they’ve brought inside.

He had heard tales of how they refused to accept rewards for their acts of heroism, merely flashing his mother a charming and dazzling smile of their own, and asked her to simply nurse the poor Pokemon back to health, before it was to be sent out to the wild again- that was enough of a reward, they would say.

Regular folk can be heroes too, she had told him. He should do his best and become a good person like those heroes, she added.

He also heard more extravagant stories of heroes from his best friend Hugh’s father, a black belt who used to be a gym trainer from another region.

(Nate didn’t have a father, but that wasn’t the point; Hugh’s dad was his dad too, his older friend decided.)

Hugh’s father had sat the boys down in Hugh’s bedroom one day during one of their many sleepovers, and dramatically told them the tales of the Unovan Heroes of Truths and Ideals while the boys nestled in their pillow fort, eyes gleaming with interest.

A pair of twins, accompanied by dragons of black and white, whose initial conflict of interest split the poor dragon into two, were considered the Unovan Heroes.

They had created and shaped the Unova region, but other tales of their heroism prior to the dragon splitting were simply undocumented. All that was known about them was that they led the dragons, Zekrom and Reshiram, into a path that shaped the future and the past, which would forever change the region and its culture.

When a curious Hugh had asked his dad why they were considered heroes in the first place, his dad couldn’t come up with an answer that pleased them. All he said was that the region considered them heroes, and that was enough.

Hugh had frowned, and so had Nate, and the two boys began pestering the older man into finding out why, because dragons were cool, so surely, whatever the heroes did to have them considered as such must have been cool too, right?

Hugh’s father sheepishly turned down their requests, but offered to find books for them to read about the matter. All the way out at Nacrene City, apparently. Much, much farther away from Aspertia.

His promise came and left, but not out of malice. Children were fickle, and the thought of what the heroes did simply became uninteresting to Nate.

He didn’t prefer to dwell in the past.

He preferred to think of the future.

And in his future, he dreamed of becoming a hero.

Not just the kind of hero that his mother wanted, though.

One whose adventures and exploits will be remembered and documented carefully.

...

When Nate and Hugh were seven, a group of bad guys had come into Aspertia, talking about things Nate didn’t understand back then.

He had been playing in the outskirts of the city with Hugh, his sister, and the two Pokemon given to them by Hugh’s late grandfather, an Oshawott and Purrloin respectively.

Nate didn’t have a Pokemon of his own yet, but his mother told him it simply wasn’t time for him to have one, no matter how hard he pouted or pleaded.

He should wait until he became more mature, she said. She was a nurse, she had often witnessed how many children, all under the age of ten, had suffered injuries due to mishandling their own Pokemon, or simply not being equipped to deal with them.

He wished he pestered her more about that matter. He wished he could have “borrowed” her Audino again and took her out to play with them that day.

If he had a Pokemon, he could have protected Hugh. He could have protected Hugh’s sister. He could have stopped them from taking Purrloin.

He could have been a hero.

Instead, all he could do was shield the little girl from further danger, as the bad guys in white and blue outfits- Team Plasma, they were called, attempted to yank out the Oshawott from his beaten friend’s hands.

It didn’t matter to these guys that Hugh was just a small child. They took his sister’s Purrloin, and they would stop at nothing to take his Oshawott too.

Nate could have stepped in. He could have done anything to stop them from hurting Hugh.

But all he did was hug Hugh’s sister tighter into his arms, cowering into a corner.

What right did he have to be afraid? He had no Pokemon on him. They would not make him a target.

It was Hugh who was actively in danger.

It was Hugh who jumped in headfirst to protect the both of them.

It was Hugh who was trying to get Purrloin back, even at the cost of his own life-

It didn’t come to that.

Thank the dragons it did not come to that.

Hugh’s father had chased the scoundrels away with his trusted Lucario, having been busy dealing with similar goons back at Virbank City.

At the sight of the three scared children, one of them being his badly beaten and bloodied son, both he and his Pokemon flew into a rage Nate had never seen before, and they were effectively dealt with, before a strange shadow had come to collect the unconscious villains.

Purrloin had been taken with them.

Despite that, Hugh’s father was a hero that day.

He had defended both Virbank and Floccesy Town alongside the few trainers that resided there, and the incident was immediately reported to the current Pokemon League champion, whose hometown was targeted by the strange group of self-proclaimed Pokemon liberators.

Nate didn’t know what preventive measures were established to avoid another incident like that from happening ever again, but the damage had already been done.

His once cheerful friend had grown hateful, and his little sister had become more scared of the world around her.

Purrloin was gone, and not even Hugh’s attempt to cheer Nate up with a forced smile was enough. Especially not when his grin was behind several layers of bandages.

The night after the attack, as he laid down on a futon near the still recovering Hugh’s bed, Nate had sworn to bring those thieves to justice.

For their kidnapping of Purrloin.

For their beating of Hugh.

And with that, the foundation of his ideals to become a hero had been set.

...

Five years later, he and Hugh were enrolled at the newly renovated Aspertia Trainer School. His mother had promised he would be getting a Pokemon of his own soon.

The building had been abandoned and dilapidated as far as Nate remembered it, and often, the adults in the city would talk amongst themselves and whisper what a shame it was to be standing just in front of Aspertia’s famous lookout, only to be devoid of students and chatter.

It was only as of two years ago that the renovation began, and just a month ago, rumors started circulating that the school would be established as the new gym where aspiring trainers could acquire the Basic Badge, following the retirement of normal-type specialist Lenora.

(Lenora was from Nacrene City. It was a shame she retired. Would it still be possible for Nate to borrow books from her about the Unovan Heroes? He should ask that.)

At the age of twelve, he should have set out on his journey two years ago. Unova was more loose with the ages their trainers went out on their journeys, either just to travel or take on the league challenge themselves, but, well..

Team Plasma had been quite active two years ago. Despite Hugh’s insistence that he head out into the big, wide world himself to actively deal with them, their parents had rightfully shut him down, and insisted he and Nate wait until Team Plasma was effectively dealt with by the league.

They would not have their children be hurt by those villains again, they said.

(Strange. Everyone in Aspertia, Floccesy, and Virbank agreed that Team Plasma was up to no good. But why was it, two years ago, that people in the mainland were actively following Team Plasma’s ideals of a “better” Unova, one where people and Pokemon were separated?)

But, in the peak of their terrorism, a young trainer all the way from Nuvema Town had stepped up and faced Team Plasma with the aid of his childhood friends, the league, and the champion, and had summoned the legendary dragon of truth, Reshiram, to battle the legendary dragon of ideals, Zekrom, in a castle that erupted from underground and surrounded the Pokemon League.

Nate had no heroes of his own to look up to.

The trainers his mother talked about were only part of her fleeting memories, and the heroes written down in Unova’s myths didn’t have sufficient proof of their heroism for them to be considered deserving of the label.

But Hilbert of Nuvema Town was a true hero.

One that Nate could look up to.

Because Hilbert was real, he watched his gym battles on TV, he saw his interviews in magazines, he was crowned champion, because he beat the king of Team Plasma and stopped them from hurting others the way they hurt Hugh-

As sudden as his emergence, as sudden as his disappearance.

Nothing else was heard from the newly crowned champion.

The whispers in the air had told Nate that Hilbert had left Unova so suddenly because the pressure of becoming the new champion, a living hero in the flesh, had been too much to bear, so he had no choice but to ride Reshiram and leave without uttering a single word.

(There was apparently a lone letter left on the doorstep of a childhood friend though, but its contents were, rightfully, confidential. Nate had heard from Hugh how nosy reporters had tried to pry that letter off from this childhood friend’s hands, only to be met with a Hyper Beam from ex-champion Alder’s Volcarona.)

No one but that childhood friend knows why Hilbert left.

Perhaps the whispers in the wind were speaking the truth. Hilbert was just fourteen when he became a hero.

He was only four years older than Nate and Hugh.

If a fourteen year old couldn’t handle the pressure of being a hero, would Nate himself be able to handle it?

He didn’t know.

And at the moment, he couldn’t find himself to care much. Overthinking wasn’t his style.

Especially not when he was taking careful, but excited steps up Aspertia’s lookout alongside Hugh, and a bubbly lady had turned to him with a tray of Pokeballs on hand.

...

Nate and Hugh were allowed to go on a journey under three conditions.

One, they look out for one another. Simple enough.

The two were rarely apart, and even when apart, they would constantly be with each other through their shiny new Xtransceivers. They were each other’s emergency contact, with their mothers being second.

Second, that they submit whatever homework the Trainer School asked of them.

They were not required to sit through lectures, and traveling Pokemon trainers, especially ones that were taking the league challenge, had a different set of requirements they needed to submit to have passing grades.

If either of them wanted a shot at other professional careers besides being trainers, they would have to graduate from the Trainer School by juggling the responsibilities of being a student and a league challenger.

Not quite simple, but feasible enough.

Despite their rowdiness, both Nate and Hugh were quite responsible young boys, if Hugh’s mother’s praises were anything to go by. They would keep each other grounded and remind one another of homework if needed.

Third, they would only be allowed to go on a journey as long as it was proven that Team Plasma was no longer roaming about.

Nate did not have the heart to break it to Hugh that his suspicions of Team Plasma’s resurgence were correct.

He didn’t have the heart to delay their journey even further. Not when he just got Hero, his new Tepig, from Bianca.

(Bianca was one of Hilbert’s childhood friends, he learned, but she was not the one who had received Hilbert’s letter. Hilbert also started out with Tepig, she had happily told him. She smiled even brighter when he revealed to her that was the exact reason he picked out Tepig. She looked almost teary at the thought of an aspiring trainer looking up to her childhood friend.)

When Nate and Hugh went back to Aspertia after training with Alder at Floccesy Town, they were instructed to head back to the trainer school, as the newly appointed gym leader had just settled in the previous day and was now preparing to take on his first challengers.

Only then would Alder, and by extension, their own parents, allow them to roam further than Route 20 and truly set off on their journeys.

Even with his trusted Tepig by his side, Nate couldn’t help but worry.

It wasn’t in his style to worry, yes, but the encounter with a strange man in black, who claimed to be part of Team Plasma, had rattled him to his core.

The thought of never setting out on his journey with Hugh because of those villains made him anxious.

He understood his mother’s fear, and he definitely understood the paranoia of Hugh’s parents.

He wouldn’t forgive himself if he let Hugh get hurt because he refused to confide in him that Team Plasma was back, but Hugh had wanted to leave on this journey as much as he did, so they would find his sister’s Purrloin together..

But, racing thoughts and paranoia be damned, he wasn’t going to let this distract him from the fact that he had just defeated the two gym trainers of Aspertia Trainer School, a newly erected gym, and he was now qualified to be the new gym leader’s first ever challenger.

Truly a way to start out his heroic tale.

Looking down at him from the platform at the very end of the battlefield, a taller, but more nervous young man stood before Nate, adjusting his tie and trying to keep a black folder tucked under his arm. A Stoutland stood behind him, while a Cinccino stood by his feet, patting his leg in an effort to soothe his nerves.

He looked familiar.

Nate could swear he’s seen this guy before.

In the same gym battle program as Hilbert.

In the same magazine as Hilbert.

In the same tabloid talking about the recently disappeared Hilbert..

And the letter that was left behind by the Hero of Truth.

...

He found that, if he couldn’t spill the beans to his own mother, Hugh’s parents, or Hugh himself just yet, he was able to confide in it with Gym Leader Cheren.

After all, he, too, was a hero in his own right, even if the newly appointed teacher couldn’t agree with him out of what Nate assumed to be an abysmal self-esteem.

It wasn’t an attempt of undervaluing his own efforts in thwarting Team Plasma, Nate knew, since he could genuinely see how Cheren believed that he did absolutely nothing to contribute to their downfall.

He only averted his gaze and lowered his head, wistfully reminiscing about how he felt weak and unable to truly make a dent in their plans, and how in the end, he was only able to support from the sides as Hilbert shouldered the burden of becoming Team Plasma’s main target.

(He seemed to have forgotten he chased after Hilbert by defeating the Pokemon League and accompanying him to N’s Castle. That, or it was just a regular Tuesday for him.)

As Cheren accompanied he and Hugh to Virbank City under Bianca’s suggestion, he gestured for the gym leader to lower himself to Nate’s level just a teensy bit, so he could whisper something in his ear while Hugh was distracted shuffling through the grass and taking care of a few Audino that popped up.

As expected, the mention of Team Plasma caused Cheren’s eyes to widen with fear.

But, he didn’t shake away Nate’s concerns with disbelief.

Nor did he try to discourage Nate from continuing his journey.

(And he didn’t try to tattle to their parents either. Nate was utterly grateful for that the most.)

Instead, he chose to take the two boys, his first two challengers, under his wing.

After all, he was their teacher.

Hugh had eagerly accepted, acknowledging Cheren’s strength, both for how he performed in the league challenge and how he was one of the young trainers to take on Team Plasma two years ago.

Naturally, the offer of training under a hero was accepted just as eagerly by Nate, whose previous worries about his journey coming to a halt were slowly disappearing.

Cheren would be on their side, and he would keep it a secret from their parents.

Under the guise of training in preparation for Roxie’s gym battle, Cheren had offered to accompany the boys all the way to Virbank Complex and battle with them as much as they needed, just enough for their respective starters to evolve and the rest of their growing team to catch up.

If Team Plasma was truly roaming the region as Nate said, then Cheren could only offer to help them become stronger, to be able to protect themselves and each other.

After all, it had been the same tactics he and Hilbert had formed when they themselves went out on their own journeys.

He only hoped that these two boys wouldn’t leave each other behind.

He hoped that one of these boys wouldn’t be foolish enough to take on the burden of becoming a hero.