#racists still reduced her to her gender and color of her skin (with a little bit of anti-intellectualism to boot)

[theodore-sallis]

“Terror Stalks the Everglades!” Astonishing Tales (Vol. 1/1970), #12.

Writers: Roy Thomas and Len Wein; Pencilers: John Buscema, Neal Adams, and John Romita; Inker: Dan Adkins; Letterers: Jon Costa and Sam Rosen

[angeloncewas]

okay but you’re so right about this fandom and the weaponizing their minority status

like, yes poc creators have a hard time and they deal with a lot of shit, but the way to help them is not bringing other creators down. it’s to support poc creators! and support poc creators because they’re good at creating and they make good content!

my least favorite thing people do is go on twitter, and list poc streamers solely by their minority status, it feels like you should only watch a streamer because of the boxes you can tick off for them and that’s so fucked up. i would absolutely hate if I were a cc and someone said “oh watch her she’s a queer woc” like I have nothing else to offer? bro at least talk about my content a little bit?

also not to mention manatreed is definitely going to be either dream, another well known cc, or one of Dream’s very close friends, so it’s not like he randomly picked someone and went “even though you never made any content, you’re a white guy so I’m gonna add you onto the dsmp!” like, can we use our brains? or any critical thinking?

Sorry for this rant btw, but you’re just so right and it always pisses me off how people treat minorities in the first place. i know a lot of people on twitter is doing it with good intentions but it’s weirdly dehumanizing to act like you should only add people to dsmp based on their skin color or something

This was my original point, and I actually have a post in my drafts somewhere about it because it's been on my mind for a while.

I am Asian. Being Asian is inherent to who "Angel" is and while I didn't really accept that for a long time, I am very much in tune with my culture at this point. And yet this hyperfocus on identity that Twitter has developed still drives me mad. This notion that someone is definitely inherently more knowledgeable on a topic purely because of their skin color; that you should support someone purely on the basis that they're [x] - it's always bothered me.

And I understand wanting to lessen the inequality, I really do. It's why people who need money often include what minority groups they're a part of - it's a way of saying "society is working against me and thus I would appreciate your support to combat that." I don't think it's wrong necessarily and I'm definitely softer on it than I used to be. But it still does bother me for all the reasons you stated.

Reducing me to your perception of who I am feels gross even when it's my minority status. Racists are also fixated on the fact that I'm Asian because it's the "other" part of me; I should be allowed to be whoever I am, all things included. (I'm using myself here as an example because I don't wanna drag other people in or use examples I can't directly speak for - but y'know, Tina should be allowed to be Tina and not just Asian woman. Sniff should be allowed to be Sniff and not just nonbinary. They're worth watching for what they do, not just because you want to stick it to society.)

And the way it goes is so wild to me too. I mean, look at how they treat Hannah. I understand that discrimination due to race and gender are two incredibly different things, but you're willfully ignorant if you're gonna pretend that Hannah hasn't had to combat a whole lot of shit to get where she is - including pretty recent on-stream harassment from another cc who turned out to be a total creep. Gaming is a white male dominated industry and Hannah - though white - is a woman. That's something to consider. But they don't give a shit because they don't like her and she won't fold.

(And the framing... they're acting like Dream saw Manatreed and said "you sir, are white. welcome to the SMP." like if you think that poorly of him then I think you're spending your time wrong.)

No worries for the rant - I agree with you. It does feel dehumanizing and I don't know why they're so invested in it. Like, I guess I kind of get why - they really flock to their community due to bigots - but I've faced my fair share of racism and I would rather no one - not even people doing it to hype me up - start with the fact that I'm a woc.

[cishetsokka]

Hello! Just found your account and thought this is a good place for this: For someone who is not from America nor European countries, Tumblr is... an experience. The obsession over race, gender, sexual orientation and how far things are strecthed through is just bizarre.

I have seen stuff about Hama and Jet, how they are portrayed in the show is apparently racist. It's just... Honey, if you look at a character and only see their skin color to excuse their actions; other than seeing them as actual characters, WHY they turned out like that from their own traumas, their personality, then I am not sure if you are looking at the right place for the problem.

I understand people are hungry for good, accurate representation (and as a Muslim, I feel the same too) or that actual real people go through awful stuff and are affected greatly (the LGBTQ+ rep in my country varies from non-existent to hate speech. While the experiences are not, cannot be the same with someone in America or other countries dealing with different stuff, I'm trying to empathize. We do not NEED to belong to a certain group to have opinions on a matter or to have a say as long as we also listen to other people too.

What we need: education. What we have: *screams*

There is a nice saying in my mother tongue: There is no shame in not knowing, but not to learn, there is. The more we exclude majority of people from certain things, more harm we do. I am not saying to tolerate, but you know... Nobody is perfect and instead of attacking when you see something ACTUALLY wrong, you can POLITELY have a conversation about it, or direct to an accurate source on that matter, you are not obligated to teach. If the person is a scum, well, bad for them but if they are not, they can actually learn something.)

Another mind boggling thing is how apparently being a community can't coexist with respecting others. It sure can, and it does. Just bound with people who share your ideas, you don't have to attack others because they have different interests and opinions which *apparently* makes them inherently [insert racist/sexist/internal misogny/homophobic]. You don't have to prove that you are on a higher morality to justify why you like it, you can just like it.

Same shit goes for woman who WANT to be traditionally feminine things, no, they do not have internal misogny, they are CHOOSING what THEY want and I thought that was the whole fucking point. While I personally did not like some aspects of LoK's portrayal of Katara, what I didn't like more was what some fans said: as if being a mother, a wife, a healer is somehow makes her less and Katara obviously wouldn't want to have the peace and family enviorement she lost in a war torn world, her wants matching with traditional stuff: misogny!!! Because apparently women has to kick asses 7/24 to be powerful, because apparently they HAVE to prove themselves to others constantly, instead of following what they want.

There is also another side of the fandom that does only portray -especially females- within their love interest and reduce the rich characters when their work is about those characters (you don't, can't portray everything in one single piece. not including if the focus is not on that character =/ *insert internal stuff*) If someone points this out and they listen, than yay, someone learnt something! I sure did learn a lot from my internet experience and still do. I am a minor, but adults are not know it all either, no one is. Screaming doesn't solve one single problem, nor changes other's views. You can just scroll through or have a civil conversation. If they did not listen, are a jerk and continue their ways, well then, time to move on, we have nothing but to hope that they'll change.

So many extremes exist and they crash with each other, it's crazy. People get offended over nothing and treat a world where people shoot fire out of their mouths as if it's the real world. Everyone needs to chill a little and enjoy the fandom.

Lol this turned out longer than I expected. Thank you for coming to my Ted-Talk.

Just gonna leave this here untouched. Excellent take anon!

[pepperony3000-archive]

Okay y’all, this is how it goes!

In a Little Mermaid live action remake, Ariel can be black, because her story is not about a white woman, it’s about a mermaid. So stop being racist pricks and saying that Ariel can’t be black.

In an Anastasia live action remake, Anastasia has to be white because her story is about a white (Russian) woman. So stop being racist pricks and saying that white people should never be cast.

If a story is intrinsically tied to a particular culture, you cannot change the color of the person’s skin Mulan cannot be Black Anastasia cannot be Asian Tiana cannot be White

If a story is not intrinsically tied to a particular culture, you can change the color of the person’s skin. Ariel can be Black Snow White can be Asian (@Disney please) Belle can (still) be White

Let artists be artists! Stop reducing artists down to the color of their skin, or their gender, or their sexual orientation!

The essence of art is to create something beautiful to share with the world, and there is beauty to be found no matter what you look like or where you come from.

Unrelated, but can we get more Disney princesses who are not white and who’s story is not tied directly into the color of her skin? Like Snow White. Give me an Asian Snow White to go with Black Ariel: a princess who is not white and who’s story is not tied directly into the color of her skin. Really the point of this is that I want an Asian Snow White.

[aion-rsa]

The Good Lord Bird Episode 2 Review: The Wicked Plot

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This The Good Lord Bird review contains spoilers.

The Good Lord Bird Episode 2

During several moments of tonight’s The Good Lord Bird, my mind was whisked back to thoughts of My Fair Lady—or at least George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. In those texts, two confirmed old bachelors in Edwardian England think it is their privilege, if not duty, to remake a poor flower girl into their perfect image. It’s a tale of possessive manipulation and outright obliviousness. And it’s given a distinctly American flavor in the first few hours of Ethan Hawke’s Good Lord Bird.

Like those earlier plays, here is a story where privileged white men, even well-intentioned Old John Brown, think it their right to remake Onion into the type of lady they see fit, all too blind by even their rosy colored racism to ask “her” opinion, or realize that she’s actually a boy. The element was pervasive last week when Onion was under Brown’s alleged care, and it’s even more apparent this week when he is absent from it. For like Eliza Doolittle, Onion can only realize a sense of self without the overbearing male presence in “her” life. But the problem is that as soon as John’s gone, another white man seeks to take his place for even more racially uncomfortable implications.

Thus how we meet Steve Zahn’s Chase. Played by the ever welcome character actor, Zahn brings his typical good humor to this redshirted Kansas shit-kicker. However, there’s an obvious menace when he prances into the episode riding a pony with a leering gaze at the self-claimed mulatto young woman by Bob’s side.

See, when the Brown boys left them alone, Bob had the clarity of mind to try to high tail it to Lawrence where they might be treated as actually free, as opposed to indentured appendages to John Brown’s overinflated sense of virtue. As Bob deduces, Brown’s sons are on “white man’s business,” and it won’t directly benefit these two Black men’s well-being. Unfortunately, the dress draws the scuzzy attention of Chase, a man who proudly will wear the uniform of Pro-Slavery Bushwhacker, even if I doubt he’s ever actually fought their battles. After all, his biggest boasted accomplishments are lies about having gunned down Old John Brown.

Yet despite being a proponent of slavery, or perhaps because of it, he lusts for Onion as another lighter skinned, apparent young woman he can immediately slide into the physical ownership of. She presents herself as another’s property, but Black women’s bodies are viewed as virgin territory for many a white racist to claim.

Chase attempts this, even as he spins tales to Onion about how he also one day might marry the Black prostitute with a supposed heart of gold named Pie. A white racist—or almost any 19th century white American, really—marrying a Woman of Color is as dishonest as the picture Chase paints of Pie.

Played intelligently by Natasha Marc as the sweet mistress of Pikesville, Pie is a Black woman who has survived as well as she has in part because of luck of her beauty and also because of her utilitarian cunning. Literally named after her sexual appeal in the small town, Pie understands how white men view her and she uses that against them—and those she deems untrustworthy around her.

When we first meet her, it’s in a vignette of The Good Lord Bird’s unique blend of folksy and deconstructive humor. There is an irony to Jacob, the real lad beneath Onion’s bonnet, being forced to apprentice at a brothel with the first woman he fancies. But there’s also a knowing eye roll that Pie is the first person to figure out inside of five minutes with Onion that she is not what she appears. Pie seems to take Onion under her wing in return for tutelage—all the better for him since, as she points out, white devils like Chase would castrate him before a lynching due to his lying about his gender, and thereby seeing white women in various states of undress, as well as white men as fools. But as Pie’s first inclination was betrayal, Onion’s initial smittenness, and our amusement at the comedy of manners unspooling inside that brothel, shouldn’t blind any to what was really going on.

Last week Onion was asked to figure out how to survive in a precarious situation by going along with white people and playing whatever role they imagined for him; this week among other People of Color, and slaves at that, Onion is asked to find his own voice and be more forthright in the choices he makes.

As just a child, he understandably fails miserably when he’s asked to use his letter-writing ability to help Sibonia (Crystal Lee Brown), a slave itching to start a revolution; it also brings him to unthinkingly reveal her planning to Pie, who in turn sells Sibonia out to the white clients of Pikesville. And why not? From her vantage, Pie can continue to use the nominal power her namesake provides her to live in a boudoir, as opposed to a cage outside. But it is also condemning others to be free.

The ambiguity The Good Lord Bird so comfortably flirts with is refreshing in the age of black and white morality in our television and pop culture. While the morality of slavery is urgently black and white, which is to say good and evil, the decisions and inner-motivations of individuals is messy, sometimes contradictory, and often ruefully shortsighted. The murkiness of human nature cannot be reduced to a tweet, a third act good deed, or in the case of Onion one naively bad mistake.

In the best scene of the episode, Sibonia is interrogated by the local judge who offers his jurisprudence by threatening to have her teeth pulled out one by one if she doesn’t implicate more names than the already nine Black faces they’ve gathered up for the slaughter. Brown’s acting against that malevolence is good, but what she brings next to the local milquetoast preacher (Alex Sharp), who asks why she would raise a hand against him and his wife when they were so good to her, is extraordinary.

Her delivery of Sibonia’s cold assessment that she’d kill Sharp’s minister first, if for no other reason than to encourage others to be merciless with far more explicitly cruel members of this Pro-slavery community, is poignant and, if from my own white vantage, initially unsettling. But it can’t be judged; not when the good minister acknowledges the wickedness of slavery, if only tacitly, yet sits by in a community that would sell her husband and children, one by one, and would see her hanged for wanting to be free. The ambiguity in her choices, perhaps even a little bit like Old John Brown’s, do not have an easy moral reading. But they ring true when she asserts, “Sometimes a sparrow got to fly wild for it to be set free.”

In this context, Onion learns some hard lessons the way Huck Finn might’ve when he came across the feuding Grangerfords and Shepardsons. In the previous episode, I worried we didn’t really get to know Onion, just what he’d do to survive. This week we met the boy, who still is forced to play the games of white folk like Chase, but also as the even less surefooted lad who might know his letters, but not how to be honest with Black folks who want to use them. His indecisiveness leads to Pie having the ability to betray Sibonia; but also gives him the temperament to go back and save Bob when the shooting starts.

The actual climax of the episode is arguably when Sibonia and her failed conspirators are hanged. The scene certainly pauses long enough for Onion to consider all the faces around him, those laughing and jeering, and those maybe guilty or regretful, like weak mealy-mouthed Chase. But the ones that matter are those up on the gallows with their leader, about to follow her up one last hill.

It makes the actual denouement where Ethan Hawke’s swaggering John Brown finally returns to the screen guns-blazing oh, so satisfying. Like an immense wave of giddy relief, we have Hawke’s sweltering performance once again take center stage. It was the highlight of last week, but its absence gave needed dimensionality to Onion, and depth to The Good Lord Bird. So its late return at the eleventh hour plays almost like a just dessert: Here’s wacky and wild Hawke stopping to interrogate Onion on whether she’s been violated, or sold her virginity to a devil of a man.

How happy it is to hear him debate scripture while firing off bullets, and driving even a coward like Chase crazy enough to run headlong into Old John Brown’s cannon.

“In that moment, just like the rest of the country, Chase was the body in half,” muses Onion’s devastating voiceover narration. That it was, Onion. That it was. And that type of precise use of sardonic dialogue and line-delivery, as well as the grace of looking beneath America’s Better Angels in this crazy moment in history, is what made “The Wicked Plot” a wicked delight.

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