#the black struggle

[tredawakandan]

We really are our ancestors. Don't fail them now by forgetting all our rich heritage and struggles as a people. For that is what made us great and will make us great again 😤

[hussyknee]

Freedom for Sudan! 🇸🇩

Freedom for The Congo! 🇨🇩

Freedom for Armenia! 🇦🇲

From River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free! 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[bethsvrse]

me, a writer, at 3am: WHAT? I CANT FIND THE SPECIFIC FANFIC THAT I MADE UP IN MY MIND WITH A WHOLE PLOT AND ORIGINAL CHARACTERS??? WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE??? DO THEY EXPECT ME TO WRITE THE STORY I THOUGHT UP OF???

[incorrectbatfamandfriends]

Dick: As your favorite sibling-

Tim: That’s Helena.

Dick: She’s a cousin at best. As you’re favorite legally related sibling-

Tim: That’s Cass.

Dick: As your favorite Brother-

Tim: That’s Duke.

Dick: As your favorite OLDER brother-

Tim: That’s Jason.

Dick: I never tried to kill you.

Tim: In this life no-

[dannymans66]

He spends half his surgeon salary in merchandise

Little continuation to this post, kind of

[writingwithcolor]

A Careful Balance: Portraying a Black Character's Relationship with their Hair

@writingraccoon said:

My character is black in a dungeons and dragons-like fantasy world. His name is Kazuki Haile (pronounced hay-lee), and his mother is this world's equivalent of Japanese, which is where his first name is from, while his father is this world's equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from. He looks much more like his father, and has hair type 4a. I plan to make his character very finnicky about his hair, both enjoying styling it, but also often being unsure how to style it (not in that he doesn't know how to, but has so many options for how to style it, he has trouble choosing). However, I know that there are some very harmful ways to write black hair, especially in regards to how the black character themselves feels about it. Kazuki does not hate his hair, in fact he takes joy in it, and I'm researching black hair and hair styles to be as accurate as possible. But I'm unsure if portraying a black character as occasionally overwhelmed by or vain about his hair is negative. How would you suggest either changing this or making it work? Does it need to be changed in the first place?

Black Character Overwhelmed by Curly Afro Hair

Your Black character wanting his hair to look its best and at times feeling overwhelmed seems reasonable and natural to me. It appears their challenge comes with how to style it. Not so much with struggling how it looks or how hard it is to manage. That is good, as this further helps avoid placing a strong negative focus on Black hair. 

Him caring a lot about how it is style should not be deemed vain or frivolous, either. In any case, hair care is self care. There’s nothing wrong with having pride with your hair, especially hair that mainstream society, historically and present, might say is not beautiful. This still matters, even in a fantasy world, since your readers still exist in this reality. It’s empowering and a welcome change to see someone who loves their afro hair, actually.

There are unique factors someone with coily afro hair would experience vs. straight, wavy, or looser curls, but people struggling with their hair (too frizzy, too flat, too limp, too thin, too thick!) is universal. 

There is a delicate balance to achieve.

Avoid Writing a Black Hair Journey Experience 

An overall negative Afro hair journey might be the reality for many, especially when society deems Afro hair as unacceptable and slaps so many uninvited opinions, laws and policies over its existence and on certain styles (again, historically and very much at present), but that’s the kind of story that is best handled by someone with the background. Someone willing to commit to the research might also be able to pull it off, although it’s truly not the kind of thing an escapism novel needs in my opinion. If the story is not meant to delve into “A Black /Black Hair Experience” then I'd avoid going that route. That is moving a bit towards a struggle narrative, depending on how much it defines your character’s story.

Add positive and neutral hair language and interactions

For your writing, I’d avoid using unchallenged negative language about his hair. Being overwhelmed at times and frustrated is one thing and expected. If his hair is constantly brought up, and is associated with uncontrollable, ugly, or too [insert struggle here], then rethink the direction you’re going. 

Add some positive or neutral terms, reactions, and interactions in the narrative towards afro hair, such as describing color and texture.

“His fine coils bounced in the wind.” 

“Hair black and shiny” 

“She wore her hair in two large, fluffy buns.”

“He admired his fresh, neat braids in the mirror, smiling at his reflection, before turning to leave.”

Another tip: It may have been for research purposes, but leave out any hair number categorizing in the story and rely on description. I’d say this goes for any story, as reading the number would feel off. 

“He had coily 4a hair.” Nahh! :P 

Also, I would suggest sending all passages that focus on his hair to a Black sensitivity reader for review.

More reading:

~Mod Colette

[lilybug-02]

Bribed with Chocolate. The way it should be.

Part 22 || First || Previous || Next

--Full Series--

More to come as this is a two-parter. But you know how I am with schedules.

Bonus:

I think this was an equally possible reaction from Chara.

[anderwater]

“We haven’t seen a lot of stories like Bertie’s before,” Robinson told LGBTQ Nation. “Someone who is a person of color and non-binary, we don’t see those stories in history often. History has been whitewashed and straightwashed but these characters existed. These people existed. I felt so honored to be a part of telling these stories and telling a story similar to mine for a person like Bertie.”

Lea Robinson as UNCLE BERT⸱IE A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (2022)

[nabulsi]

i keep seeing ppl talking about how theyre ugly sobbing over that shitty pirate show. do you not have shame to care more about a racist antiblack TV show glorifying slave owners, written by a zionist racist supporter of genocide. that you have more tears to shed for that blight on the human race than you do for the millions of palestinians going through horrors unimaginable. where's your ugly sobbing for them?

[likeprongstostars]

regulus explaining the latest murder series he watched to james: and then he was cut to pieces and his guts were all over the place and...

james: *smiling fondly*

[wtfforged]

[starry-stormy-knight]

whatup i was my dad's dream son until he switched career paths :)

[achillean-knight]

Safe Haven.

[miracleon63rdstreet]

I'm a black trans woman in need of IMMEDIATE HELP getting at least 65$ for a space heater from my neighbor to put in my home, i have no heat, my furnace is out and i'm struggling really badly with everything including finding a job, it's in the negatives and below 0, im freezing and my cats and dogs are freezing as well, PLEASE HELP ME GET SOME HEAT IN MY CRIB EVEN IF IT'S A LITTLE BIT.

[de-adend-archived]

2018!🐢💜 [ft puppet history]

[saturncoyote]

I missed them