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siryouarebeingmocked · 9 months

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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: I may have activated my own trap card

Spoilers for a movie that's two months old and also out on home release.

So, Miles, Gwen, Pavitr (Spider-India), and Hobie (Spider-Punk) all seem to have modern left-wing politics, though Gwen's got edited out. Hobie's introduction specifically says he hates "fascists", which carries over from the original comics.

By the time Hobie came around, I assumed he was just another poser, cooler than the hero rival character, expressing generic leftie politics, and his punk ethos wasn't sincere.

Which is exactly what the writers wanted me to think.

Not only is Hobie perfectly sincere about being anti-authoritarian, but he's been helping Miles since before they even met. He's been blatantly stealing junk from the Spider Society to build his own universe-jumping watch, and disguising it as petty vandalism.

He even tries to talk Miles out of trying to join the Spider-Society before the reveal that Miles himself is an anomaly, and the SS (geddit?) tries to detain Miles.

When Hobie says he's against authoritarianism, he really means it.

Speaking of the left-wing politics, Miles has a "#BLM" pin on his bag. It's very visible while he sits next to his dad.

Who's a cop.

(TANGENT: A few years ago, someone drew a stupid, very bad comic where Spider-Man (Peter Parker) was a) black, b) hated cops, and c) assaulted and subdued riot cops when they asked him for help.

That the comic didn't even show the riot cops were wrong. We were just supposed to assume they deserve to be left to the mercy of an angry mob.

Also, in this comic, Uncle Ben was killed by a cop, not a random thug who Spidey could've stopped but chose not to. Which makes me wonder how that would shake out.

It's kind of weird for someone to look at a character who's about personal responsibility to an unhealthy degree, and use him to express their collectivist anti-cop terrorism fantasies. That, or they didn't think through their fantasies.)

During Spider-India's opening, Miles says "I love Chai Tea!" And Pavitr goes on a rant about how "Chai" means "tea". Later on, The Spot says he's been on a "journey of self-discovery", and Pavitr basically says he's racist.

Which is a tad ironic, because Spot is literally white. And also because Pavitr is the one making the racist assumptions.

And I personally go to a church - in England - that has a lot of non-white non-British people. Mostly Africans. And me, of course. I wonder if any Asians ever went on a journey of self discovery to South London.

And I don't just mean as a cab driver.

"Wait, SYABM, didn't you move to the UK for self-discovery?"

W-well, yes, partially.

Aside: I made the mistake of watching a Youtube video with the Chai Tea joke, and then I looked at the comments.

One guy said "tfw when Twitter users write a movie". An idiot (with much more upvotes) said "bro out here wanting blatant racism in movies".

...When the whole point of the joke is that the racism is not blatant.

It's only "blatant" if you're insufferably Twitterized. There are loads of redundant phrasings in English, like "ATM machine", and words often shift when they're adopted from other languages.

Also, "I dislike this joke" is not the same as "I want racism in this movie", when the "racism" in the movie is only there so it could be mocked.

One of the issues with putting real world movements in worlds that are drastically different - it's one of the main selling points of the franchise - is that it may seem odd that those movements exist in very similar form to the IRL version.

For example, Miles supports BLM in both his video game, and this. Which makes me think "did Trayvon Martin get shot in Florida? How about Mike Brown? Wouldn't the existence of supervillains throw things into a new perspective?"

Did I mention the giant George Floyd-style "REST IN POWER" mural to Miles' dead uncle? I cringed at that in the Wakanda Forever trailer, and I rolled my eyes at it here.

Floyd wasn't a saintly martyr, he was an unlucky violent thug.

Also, Aaron was a supervillain killed by another bad guy who nearly destroyed the city, not a cop.

Also, this is at a party to celebrate how Miles' dad is about to be promoted. Assuming Floyd died and the 2020 protests/riots also happened in Miles' universe, then it seems a tad tasteless to have a mural inspired by an anti-cop movement overlooking it, even if the party is not full of cops.

Spider-India lives in "Mumbattan".

The people who settled the Manhattan area were originally Indian. But the other type of Indian. The Indians we're not supposed to call Indians anymore.

The name "Manhattan" is even Native American.

The first permanent settlement was Dutch. Then the English got it. I guess the English could've shipped Indians to the other side of the world and eventually ceded the area to them, or maybe in this world India was a world-conquering superpower and Mumbattan is the result of...importing Native Americans?

Which would make Pavitr's complaint that "the British stole all of our stuff and put it in their museums" seem a tad hypocritical.

Of course, since I wrote all that, someone reminded me that Pavitr explicitly says the joint is in India.

"SYABM," you say, "you're overthinking this."

Yes, I am. Because the filmmakers didn't think it through. If you want to use ha-ha-funny to make a serious point, you invite examination of that point.

Miles (as Spidey) now works with his dad, though he disguises his voice. At one point, Miles tells his father that men bottle up mental health issues.

This is true (and ironic, considering Miles is hiding who he is from Jeff), but it's not the first time I've seen some progressive work try to address men's issues in an very awkward way. At least here, it's played for comedy.

Also, seems a tad hypocritical coming from a guy who wears a "#BLM" pin in the presence of his cop father.

Also, if you work the timeline, that would mean Miles was about 7 or 6 when BLM started. Which means he's gone most of his life knowing nothing else.

There was a controversy over a "protect trans kids" trans flag in Gwen's room, which was apparently edited out.

IMO, it seems a tad strange for a girl who feels estranged from everyone in her world to join a social movement, but what do I know? Maybe it was there before then.

Some people came to the extremely logical conclusion that Gwen herself is trans. Even though she's distinctly physically feminine and possibly too young for puberty blockers depending on Earth 65′s laws.

Like the "oh great, it's Liv" shippers, people are reaching really hard to see what they want to see.

Some people have said that Gwen's issues with her dad and herself seem awfully similar to the issues LGBTQIA2S+ kids go through.

Gee, it's not like, y'know, feeling estranged from one's family is a common theme in fiction about teenagers and superhero, and the whole "superpowers = minority" thing has been done to death for most of the past century.

Perhaps most notably - and clumsily - in X-Men.

youtube

I'm not saying this wasn't the intended subtext. I'm saying if it was, it would just be really, really cliche.

There's this recurring theme of people telling miles "how [his] story is supposed to go".

When he's at a meeting with his parents and his guidance counselor, the lady says his story of being a black-Latino son of an immigrant would sound great in the college application letters. His mom is a tad miffed, given that they're a) solidly middle class, and b) as a Puerto Rican, she considers herself American.

Miguel (Spider-Man 2099) doesn't want Miles in the multiversal council of Spiders, because Miles was bitten by the radioactive spider from a different universe. Which is why his local Spider-Man died, and the spider's home dimension has no Spider-Man.

Also, Miguel is fixated on "canon events". The idea that there are certain things, especially tragedies, that have to happen to Spiders, or their entire universe falls apart.

And he knows this, because he tried to take over for a version of him that got shot dead by a thug. Tried to raise his daughter.

And he watched as the universe collapsed in front of him.

So he's projecting his own guilt onto Miles, a tad.

According to TVtropes and other sources, this was actually about the people who didn't accept Miles as a replacement Spidey, possibly out of racism.

Yeah, that's real hard-hitting topical meta-commentary about a character who debuted 12 years ago. 8 years when the first movie came out.

I'd also like to point out that despite stereotypes of comic book fans, certain minority successors to banner superheros have been fairly well-received. Like Jaime Reyes, or Cassandra Cain.

(Note: I wrote that before the Blue Beetle movie came out. And flopped.)

And, of course, loads of people like Miles specifically because he's a minority Spidey, which is also racist, just from the other direction. In fact, a lot of his fans seem to forget the "Latino" part of "Afro-Latino". From what little I've seen of Miles early comics, they did actually put strong emphasis on his race.

I also suspect the filmmakers may be misinterpreting the usual successor knee-jerk reactions

as racism. If you're using an established brand name for your new hero, you're creating some expectations.

Also, you know the most popular meme about regular Spidey that I see? That Marvel's writers just keep making him suffer and don't want him to actually develop. Which would kinda make Marvel closer to Team Miguel than Team Miles.

Miles also gripes that Miguel is letting "some algorithm" tell him what to do. While I agree with the sentiment, I'd like to point out that, again, Miles supports BLM.

A movement popularized by an algorithm.

A movement made up of narratives and assumptions.

A movement which has never proven a single incident was because of racism.

During the big chase scene, we see a Spider girl in a wheelchair, aka Sun-Spider. She's from the comics. Same initiative that gave us "Web-Weaver".

Who is, of course, an extremely effete gay fashion designer Spidey. I kinda like his outfit, though the Spider-eyes with eyelashes is a little too far.

And Sun-Spider seems exactly like a character a stereotypical 90s executive and focus group would come up with. Down to the backward baseball cap.

(Turns out she's Dayn Broder's actual Spider-Sona.)

Also, while I was looking up that one black and white Spider who said "nowhere to run" (Metro-Spider, played by record producer Metro Boomin [/sic]), I found out that Aunt May's full name is "Maybelle", not just "May". TIL.

There's a bit of a double standard with this version of Spider-Woman, who's black and pregnant. -People in the movie - including Peter B - regularly point out how Peter B endangering his infant daughter Mayday by taking her along with him. But for some reason, nobody says a word about Jessica, who's an active-duty stunt-biking superhero.

Even regular motorbiking can be dangerous for pregnant women.

In fact, the movie portrays this as heroic and impressive. When Gwen sees Jess is preggos, she asks if Jess can adopt her.

Not to mention the whole "afro and hoop earrings" thing, which seem like a bad idea for a type of hero who often gets into melee combat, even with Spider-Sense.

Yes, I'm aware that female heroes, including the Spider-Ladies, often have exposed hair. It's a genre convention. Incidentally, it was nice to see Batwoman wore a detachable decoy wig in the comics. Some bad guy tries to grab it in a fight? It comes right off.

Also, Jess doesn't have much actual character.

Being pregnant is not a character trait. In fact, her only real traits are basically "cool but stern sassy mentor", to contrast with Peter B. -Incidentally, someone on TVtropes pointed out the double standard. And when I saw the page again, a page-camper had deleted it, with no explanation.

Guess they couldn't stand someone pointing out the flaws of their waifu.

(One) Spider-UK in this movie is Muslim. I know she's Muslim because she wears a Spider-themed headdress. Note that regular Marvel 616 has a muslim lady Spider-UK, but her name is Zarina Zahari and she doesn't wear a hijabi.

(Also, she could be mistaken for Ms. Marvel.)

ms marvel.jpg

You might be thinking "wait, isn't a headdress impractical in a melee fight? Doesn't it give your enemy something to grab?" Yes, it is.

But so are Jess's earrings, afro, and being pregnant, so clearly there's a lot of artistic license going on.

Maybe it's partially tearaway, like Batman's cape.

I gotta wonder about the religious rules of wearing a head covering over a mask that *already* covers your entire head. Did she go see her imam and go "Okay, I have a really weird question..."

Come to think, Spidey is usually slim, but a lot of lady Spideys in this movie seemed to have wide hips. Including muscular ladies. Kris Anka's concept art goes really hard on wide hips. I don't know why. Stronger, faster character reads during the big chase?

I guess Spiders could be expected to have strong legs.

BOTTOM LINE:

I liked the movie overall, though the progressive bits made me roll my eyes a little. I...want to see the third one, with reservations.

#tvtropes #spiderman #character design #movies

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odinsblog · 1 year

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A black man was also helping subdue Jordan Kneely. He viewed him as a threat to other people as well.

First of all, his name was Jordan Neely, not Kneely.

And the cowardly murderer who snuck up behind Jordan Neely and strangled him for 15 minutes is Daniel Penny.

Second, whenever a white person murders a Black person—from George Floyd to Tamir Rice to Trayvon Martin to Breonna Taylor—you can depend on white people trying to derail their murder by either invoking Black-on-Black crime, or victim blaming, or character assassination, or engage in endless equivocating about why the murder was maybe possibly somehow justified because of unspoken (but very well known!) racial stereotypes. This ask is an example of the last thing.

Look, anon, your “gotcha” isn’t nearly the argument you seem to think it is.

What is key in Jordan Neely’s murder is the race of the victim.

There are any number of studies that have repeatedly shown that when a murder victim is Black or non-white, the police, the general public and the so-called criminal justice system are less than concerned about meting out justice to the killer. If, however, the victim is white, then everything changes and justice suddenly becomes much much more important. For example: the state of Florida has had the death penalty forever, but it wasn’t until 2017 that Florida gave the death penalty to a white man for killing a Black man—2017, for the very first time.

Why do you think that is, anon?

I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t because that was the very first time a white man murdered a Black man in Florida.

It’s because it’s the race of the VICTIM that matters here in America.

Also, please understand something else here…

There are LGBTQ people who vote for openly homophobic Republicans.

There are Black people who vote for racist Republican candidates.

There are Black police officers who harass and murder unarmed and innocent Black people.

There are women who have had or plan on having an abortion who vote for anti abortion candidates.

There are immigrants and former refugees who who will vote for the same racist conservative candidates who vote against asylum seekers and any immigration reforms.

Absolutely NONE of this is a valid excuse for racism, misogyny, homophobia or xenophobia.

What’s important to remember here are the wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr’s words:

“Every minority and every people has its share of opportunists, profiteers, freeloaders and escapists. The hammer blows of discrimination, poverty and segregation must warp and corrupt some. No one can pretend that because a people may be oppressed, every individual member is virtuous and worthy. The real issue is whether in the great mass the dominant characteristics are decency, honor and courage.”

And lastly, but most importantly: SOMEONE YELLING AND HAVING A BREAKDOWN IN PUBLIC IS NOT “THREATENING” AND DOES NOT JUSTIFY MURDER. MAKING PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE IS NOT “THREATENING” AND DOES NOT JUSTIFY MURDER.

So in closing, 🖕🏿

#anon #ask #answered #jordan neely #daniel penny #racism deniers #white privilege #two americas #double standards #racism

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99snse · 6 months

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BANNED FCS ⸻ updated, 11/20/23

disclaimer: this list should not be taken as a matter of my own opinion. each individual listed has a source attached for your own education and should be carefully considered in all of your fc choices. if you feel as if any individual has been mistakenly listed here, please feel free to reach out to me privately to discuss the circumstances surrounding their placement. ultimately, i did not create this list as a means of causing negatively, but it is much more important that we hold each other accountable and i hope to provide a running list of fcs that would be inappropriate or otherwise problematic for usage.

BANNED FOR: ABUSE

BANNED FOR: SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

Kim Ji-soo (actor), bullying & alleged sexual misconduct (source)

Jung Joon-young, Burning Sun scandal (source)

Choi Jong-hoon, Burning Sun scandal (source)

Lee Seung-hyun (Seungri), Burning Sun scandal (source)

Lee Jong-hyun (CNBLUE), Burning Sun scandal (source)

Kim Hyung-jun, alleged sexual misconduct (source)

BANNED FOR: APPROPRIATION/RACISM

Wendy Son, perpetuating racial stereotypes (source)

Kwon Ji-yong, blackface to imitate Trayvon Martin (source)

Shin Dong-hee (Shindong), blackface to imitate Oprah (source)

Kim Kang-hoon (Yesung), blackface to imitate Nick Fury (source)

Lee Gi-kwang, blackface/perpetuating racial stereotypes (source)

Kim Jong-dae, blackface to imitate a racial caricature (source)

Yoon Bo-mi, blackface to imitate a racial caricature (source)

Jackson Wang, appropriation & ignorance of black protective hairstyles (source)

BANNED FOR: EXPRESSED DISCRIMINATION

Henry Lau, homophobia & transphobia (source)

Park Jeong-soo (Leeteuk), fatphobia (source)

Shin Dong-hee (Shindong), fatphobia (source)

Choi Si-won, homophobia & transphobia (source & source)

Kim Kang-hoon (Yesung), fatphobia (source)

Amber Liu, instances of expressed racial prejudice in response to police brutality (source)

Jessica Ho, allegations of assault (charges dropped), homophobia, usage of slurs (source & source)

BANNED FOR: GROSS/QUESTIONABLE BEHAVIOR

Kim So-won, "misunderstood" the significance of Nazi symbolism (source)

Wong Kun Hang, weird comments about dreadlocks (source)

Yong Jun-hyung, Burning Sun involvement (never prosecuted)

Roy Kim, Burning Sun involement (never prosecuted)

Eddy Kim, Burning Sun involvement (never prosecuted)

Kim Young-woon (Kangin), present in voyeurism chatroom (source)

Jeong Jin-woon, present in voyeurism chatoom (source)

Lee Chul-woo, present in voyeurism chatroom (source)

Son Chae-young, "misunderstood" the significance of Nazi symbolism & right-wing conspiracy group QAnon (source & source)

BANNED FOR: SUPPORT OF OPPRESSION/GENOCIDE

Liu Yifei, support of police brutality during Hong Kong protests (source)

Donnie Yen, support of Chinese Communist Party (source)

Fan Bingbing, support of Chinese Communist Party (source)

Jackson Wang, support of Chinese Communist Party & its use of forced labor in Xinjiang (source)

BANNED FOR: EXPRESSED DISCOMFORT WITH USAGE

Christian Yu

Park Sun-young (Luna)

Lee Ji-eun (IU)

BANNED FOR: MISC.

Kim Jong-hyun, passed away

Tany (Kim Jin-soo), passed away

Ahn So-jin, passed away

Go Eun-bi (EunB), passed away

Kwon Ri-se, passed away

Kim Dong-yoon, passed away

Seo Min-woo, passed away

Goo Ha-ra, passed away

Choi Jin-ri (Sulli), passed away

Moon Bin, passed away

Lee Ji-han, passed away

Im Na-hee, passed away

Park Soo-ryun, passed away

Jeong Joong-ji, passed away

Yoo Joo-eun, passed away

USE WITH CAUTION.

Jennie Kim, taking part in "The Idol"

Kim Min-gyu, general carelessness for perceived support of korean conservative party amid prior (unresolved) allegations of bullying, sexual misconduct, and misogyny (source & source)

Kim Tae-hyung, ignorance surrounding the cultural relationship between black hair & durags (source)

Lee Jeno, fatphobic comments (source)

Park Jisung, colorist & fatphobic comments (source)

Park Chanyeol, colorist comments (source)

#some of these like fan bingbing are #kind of nuanced and complicated #but if you have questions about any of these #please reach out to me

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cinna-bunnie · 8 months

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I am immune to vote blue no matter who propaganda i have like at least 8 intersecting marginalized identities and was introduced to how fucked up this country is through Trayvon Martin who is - was - the same age as me. I do not think evil people should win but I Have seen it's the ONLY time you actually see real, widespread solidarity and social progress in resistance to said evil people in power.

All of that immediately evaporates and everyone's left to fend for themselves again when Democrats get elected; I think white ppl in general should have a reason to be fearful again to gain a sense of solidarity that actually persists beyond election cycles. If that solidarity never takes root there's no hope for this country.

You have to love other people more than you want to win - meaning that if you're only fighting for or helping someone because you lost and not because you genuinely care about them, you're going to stop as soon as you win (i.e all the back to brunch liberals).

Then have the fucking gall to tell people you've shown absolute disregard towards (or even contempt for daring to have critiques or publicly articulating dissatisfaction with what dems actually (don't) DO with their power) to fall in line Every Single Election. The country's perceived safety is really only your safety, when you lose that safety it's really just like hey welcome to the circumstances Everyone else has to live with, are you going to help change that? Because we need help; electoral politics and voting for liberals are not going to save us.

#sorry just needed to get that off my chest #biden dick riders annoy me so much lol #but also just some thoughts on growing up coming to terms w how evil our institutions are then living thru a trump presidency and now this #╮⁠(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)⁠╭ communities will always have ur back so to a point i do feel like we'll be ok no matter what bc we have Each Other #but there is a very very large portion of the country that consist of very self centered yt ppl or yt-centric communities that don't show #enough solidarity w others. u have to care about black ppl you have to care about disabled ppl you have to care about trans ppl #you have to love others more than you want to win. you have to show up for ppl u want to show up for u. you gotta do more than only vote.

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mybeingthere · 9 months

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Devan Shimoyama was born in 1989 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State University in 2011 with a BFA in Drawing/Painting. He received his MFA from Yale University School of Art in Painting/Printmaking in 2014. While there, in 2013, he was awarded the Al Held Fellowship.

"Shimoyama creates two distinct worlds—one an enchanted paradise, the other a queer imagining of the African American barbershop. Celebrated for fraternity and community, Shimoyama presents the barbershop as a space where young men and boys can feel shamed and vulnerable. In sculpture, he creates objects of mourning for Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice, both examples of the aggressive targeting of African American youth as fearful or threatening. While canvases feel joyful and celebratory, they also present commentary on pain and sorrow. Teardrops lurk in the background of his landscapes or stream down the faces of his figures as a reminder of the racial injustices at work in contemporary society. Shimoyama presents a world where race, sexuality, and identity can operate from a point of freedom generated by inner strength." The Andy Warhol Museum.

ww.debuckgallery.com/artist/devan-shimoyama

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ataritouchme · 8 months

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it is really just amazing to go back and look at lib-y stuff from the mid 2010s and see the dramatic differences in political tone between pre-BLM and post-BLM.. stuff. suddenly even the Centrist white dudes were drawing lines in the sand. i remember watching the episode of the daily show that came out after michael brown was murdered (i think it was him? maybe trayvon martin idk its all such a blur to me im sorry) where jon stewart puts on his serious voice he would typically only reserve for 9/11 or whatever and be like “look yall might not wanna hear this but the experiences of white americans are fundamentally different than those of black americans” and then like a few months later he was gone off tv. right? i think that timeline makes sense. and crash course has a similar thing going on. old series didnt really touch on race relations in the us even us history which… looking back is awkward to say the least but i suppose if ur pandering to the apush crowd its probably sensible since the ap test is never gonna have like an essay question about how america is built on racism and subjugation of black ppl and ppl of color in general. or idk maybe it does now. but it certainly didnt in 2013. but then literature has so much content about black authors and authors of color and actually has like deeper than surface level exploration of how those authors experiences of racism and colonialism informed their writing. idk its just nice to see that at least on some maybe superficial level but some level still the centrist white dudes actually stopped being spineless.

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cyarskaren52 · 1 year

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRnIVDPLQs/

shaunking 🤬🤬🤬What I’m seeing right now with over $2 million given to support Daniel Penny after he choked Jordan Neely to death IS NOT NEW. The public celebration of Penny isn’t new either. ⁣

⁣

It’s BEEN happening. ⁣

⁣

Gathering to celebrate the brutal lynching of a Black boys, girls, men, women, and even entire families is a white American pastime. It happens every generation. ⁣

⁣

It’s one of the single most evil realities about this place. ⁣

⁣

I decided to crop out the dangling dead bodies from this image. ⁣

⁣

I almost posted a slew of them, but it’s just too much. It was always too much. ⁣

⁣

In the not so distant past they lynched Black folk and made it such a communal event that THOUSANDS gathered together, smiling, posing, even taking body parts as souvenirs. ⁣

⁣

That they’ve made Daniel Penny a hero, and have rallied behind him, isn’t a hidden message. Not at all. ⁣

⁣

It’s them openly celebrating not just the man, but what he did, to a tiny Black man with a tragic history of severe mental health challenges.⁣

⁣

I have to say it, but Jordan Neely DID NOT TOUCH A SOUL. ⁣

⁣

He never put his hands on ANYONE before this man killed him. ⁣

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In the extended video people are telling him that he’s killing Jordan but he still refused to let go. ��

⁣

Thousands of Marines have said EVERY Marine is taught against this in their martial arts training. ⁣

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Anybody that knows how to apply the rear naked choke knows that holding it this long will kill someone. ⁣

⁣

But white folk have made this man their hero anyway.⁣

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Why? Because THEY LIKE IT. ⁣

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They like what he did. ⁣

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I saw them celebrating the murder of Trayvon Martin and literally buying autographs from his killer. ⁣

⁣

Who the hell does this?⁣

⁣

The same people that proudly posed with dead Black bodies generations ago.

This is their kink

When a black man, woman and child is killed or tormented it makes them feel horny

to them a black suffering is a sexual turn on

This is not making me horny it’s making me angry

this doesn’t turn me on it’s pissing me off

to hell with traumatic porn !

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everyteamsterisasaint · 11 months

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No comment on American Beauty but I do not understand the dismissal of Fight Club in the context of proglib mythos. Haven't the great victories of social justice been in the reveal that the idyllic time of the 90s hid systems of racial and heteronormative supremacy? Weren't the 90s the time of Clinton referring to black teenagers as super-predators, Rudy Giuliani's tough-on-crime platform, various anti-loitering laws and broken window theory of policing? Weren't Trayvon Martin and George Floyd case studies in a system of white supremacy, which simply served as focal points for protest movements to articulate issues in the black communities? Wasn't the legalization of gay marriage, the proliferation of including pronouns in email signatures, and the popularization of transgenderism via its genesis on Tumblr and expanded to the general public via Caitlyn Jenner the most important victories evar? And society before this was a hellish wasteland for gay people?

In light of all this, isn't Fight Club dismissing comfortable whiteoids as being "fake" much closer to the mark than deluding yourself that the 90s were "better" than now, because you, disgusting whiteoid, had a better chance at being comfortable?

#long #longpost

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brandonshimoda · 1 year

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THE BOOKS I READ IN 2022, in the order in which I read them (*books I read before, that I was reading again):

Alexandra Chang, Days of Distraction

Elizabeth Miki Brina, Speak, Okinawa

Cynthia Dewi Oka, Fire Is Not a Country

Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest

*Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings

Victoria Chang, Dear Memory

*Etel Adnan, Of Cities & Women (Letters to Fawwaz)

Sun Yung Shin, The Wet Hex

traci kato-kiriyama, Navigating With(out) Instruments

Raquel Gutiérrez, Brown Neon

Solmaz Sharif, Customs

*Etel Adnan, Journey to Mount Tamalpais

Lucille Clifton, Generations: A Memoir

Emerson Whitney, Heaven

Kim Thúy, em, tr. Sheila Fischman

Angel Dominguez, Desgraciado (the collected letters)

Janice Lee, Separation Anxiety

*Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee

*Cathy Park Hong, Translating Mo’um

Kyoko Hayashi, From Trinity to Trinity, tr. Eiko Otake

Lao Yang, Pee Poems, tr. Joshua Edwards & Lynn Xu

Yuri Herrera, A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire, tr. Lisa Dillman (

Mai Der Vang, Yellow Rain

Chuang Hua, Crossings

José Watanabe, Natural History, tr. Michelle Har Kim

Walter Lew, Excerpts from: ∆IKTH 딕테/딕티 DIKTE, for DICTEE (1982)

*Bhanu Kapil, The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers

Vasily Grossman, An Armenian Sketchbook, tr. Robert & Elizabeth Chandler

Hiromi Kawakami, Parade, tr. Allison Markin Powell

Lynn Xu, And Those Ashen Heaps That Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight

*Etel Adnan, Sitt Marie Rose, tr. Georgina Kleege

Jennifer Soong, Suede Mantis/Soft Rage

*James Baldwin, No Name in the Street

*Hilton Als, The Women

Dot Devota, >She

V.S. Naipaul, The Return of Eva Perón

Yasushi Inoue, The Hunting Gun, tr. Sadamichi Yokoo and Sanford Goldstein

Molly Murakami, Tide goes out

Adrian Tomine, Shortcomings

Hisham Matar, A Month in Siena

Leia Penina Wilson, Call the Necromancer

Gabriel García Márquez, News of a Kidnapping, tr. Edith Grossman

Amitava Kumar, Bombay-London-New York

Elizabeth Alexander, The Trayvon Generation

Ryan Nakano, I Am Minor

Constance Debré, Love Me Tender, tr. Holly James

Hilton Als, My Pin-up

Victoria Chang, The Trees Witness Everything

Leslie Kitashima-Gray, The Pink Dress: A Story from the Japanese American Internment

Emmanuel Carrère, Yoga, tr. John Lambert

Ronald Tanaka, The Shino Suite: Sansei Poetry

Patricia Y. Ikeda, House of Wood, House of Salt

Soichi Furuta, to breathe

Kiki Petrosino, Bright

Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Aerial Concave Without Cloud

Nanao Sakaki, Real Play

Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias

Francis Naohiko Oka, Poems

Geraldine Kudaka, Numerous Avalanches at the Point of Intersection

Steve Fujimura, Sad Asian Music

Augusto Higa Oshiro, The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu, tr. Jennifer Shyue

Julie Otsuka, The Swimmers

Salman Rushdie, The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey

Margo Jefferson, Constructing a Nervous System

Hua Hsu, Stay True

Barbara Browning, The Miniaturists

Kate Zambreno, Drifts

*Julie Otsuka, When The Emperor Was Divine

Louise Akers, Elizabeth/The Story of Drone

Wong May, In the Same Light: 200 Poems for Our Century from the Migrants & Exiles of the Tang Dynasty

Gabrielle Octavia Rucker, Dereliction

Trung Le Nguyen, The Magic Fish

Jessica Au, Cold Enough for Snow

Tongo Eisen-Martin, Blood on the Fog

Lucas de Lima, Tropical Sacrifice

*Like a New Sun: New Indigenous Mexican Poetry, ed. Víctor Terán & David Shook

Billy-Ray Belcourt, A Minor Chorus

Kazim Ali, Silver Road

*Sadako Kurihara, When We Say Hiroshima, tr. Richard Minear

Simone White, or, on being the other woman

*James Baldwin, The Devil Finds Work

Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes

*Raquel Gutiérrez, Brown Neon

Marguerite Duras, The Man Sitting in the Corridor

Gayl Jones, Corregidora

*Bhanu Kapil, The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers

*Etel Adnan, Seasons

Gwendolyn Brooks, to disembark

Cristina Rivera Garza, The Taiga Syndrome, tr. Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana

Gwendolyn Brooks, In the Mecca

Nona Fernández, The Twilight Zone, tr. Natasha Wimmer

Selva Almada, Dead Girls, tr. Annie McDermott

*Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee

Valerie Hsiung, To Love an Artist

*Theresa Hak Cha, Exilée and Temps Morts

Dao Strom, We Were Meant To Be a Gentle People

Randa Jarrar, Love Is An Ex-Country

*Dao Strom, Instrument

Osamu Dazai, Early Light, tr. Ralph McCarthy and Donald Keene

Osamu Dazai, The Setting Sun, tr. Donald Keene

Rachel Aviv, Strangers To Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us

Mahmoud Darwish, Journal of an Ordinary Grief, tr. Ibrahim Muhawi

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palesaintsss · 1 year

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Thoughts on Revolution

I feel as a country and as someone who is Generation Z, there is a strong delusion surrounding the idea of revolution. People want revolution now. They are just waiting for the right person to tell them to stop everything they are doing and fight the oppressor. But that is the issue; they still like being told what to do. And because revolution is extremely inconvenient.

To genuinely want revolution is the same as being religious; you have to believe in it and then curate your life around that belief. Revolution is a state of mind. I believe the Revolution begins with my generation, Generation Z. This generation will mark the end of widespread patriotism in the States. And if my generation decides to have kids, their descendants will be even radicalized further, just like how the descendants of early millennials and late Gen X’ers are becoming radicalized now. This is why revolution is generational. Younger generations experience the consequences of the older generation’s lack of foresight. Younger generations are collecting their own observations of the events happening in the world. Nine year olds getting shot at school, innocent people being shot by the police, politicians banning books, towns being poisoned. The list goes on. My generation, Generation Z has been collecting these observations since Sandy Hook. Since Tamir Rice. Trayvon Martin. In the simplest words: We don’t fuck with the government, and we aren’t proud to be American.

The more and more people that feel hostility towards the government, the more and more our national identity becomes about resistance. And as our national identity becomes about resistance, the more resistance there will be. It’s just history. Our national identity will change with the times, but this national identity will be curated through generations. Just as its been curated by the generations before.

I believe revolution is inevitable but I unfortunately don’t think I’ll be apart of it. I think it’s going to take a while. I am however fortunately blessed to be existing in a time during the downfall of a great empire, the United States of America. All of the art and literature that will come from this time will be forever encoded within the history of our world. What a time to be alive. I hope it is when I am on my death bed that I get to witness the Revolution. I’d like to think the cynicism and anti-patriotism of my generation would have done some good. All I can do until then is just hold on and ride the wave of resistance.

#writeblr #writing #revolution

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banhchao · 2 years

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BTS are real activists, you just don't consider them real activists because they're very attractive. being ugly isn't a requirement to be an activist, you know :) anyway reduce reuse recycle

They are real performative activists yes, but not real activists. To be a real activist, you do not only engage in activism whether it be campaigning, protesting, participating in initiatives, spreading knowledge and education, fighting for policy, legal reforms, volunteering with communities, donating etc. but you also must have an in-depth knowledge of the historical, political, social and economic background and implications of the cause you are fighting for. BTS clearly lacks this (along with some of the other ones I mentioned). They donate money and say a few flowery words to seem like they support certain causes but have zero comprehension or in-depth knowledge of what they are saying and donating to. Notable example is their donation to BLM and then promoting the NYPD’s police robot dog right after (the robot dog meant to increase police brutality against Black and Brown people in New York). Surface-level activism and zero critical thinking of how their choices contradict what they promoted in the past.

When we speak of real activists, we speak of people that genuinely care deeply and are passionate and educated about the causes they fight for, even have their livelihoods on the line and have their lives dependent on! An example is Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd, who live in Eastern Jerusalem and use their platforms to share and spread knowledge of the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel. Both twins have been illegally detained by the IOF, their lives in danger due to their outspoken activism. Another example is Mahbouba Seraj, a journalist and women’s rights activist from Afghanistan. She runs a women’s shelter in Kabul where Afghan women can take refuge as well as several nonprofit organizations. When given the choice to leave Afghanistan as the Taliban took over, Mahbouba chose to stay in Kabul to continue helping women fight for their rights. She has stated that she knows she is on the Taliban’s radar and yet still has chosen to continue helping women despite the danger she’s in. Another example is that of the three Black Lives Matter founders, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi. BLM was officially founded in 2013 by Patrisse, Alicia and Opal in the aftermath of the murder of Trayvon Martin, addressing systemic and institutional antiblack racism and police brutality, bringing attention to the unlawful murders of Black people (by the police and others) as well as advocating for prison abolition, housing, community initiatives etc. BLM activists have been arrested, detained, injured and even killed for their work, targeted by authorities for fighting for their rights in a white supremacist society.

Activists deserve our utmost support and respect for the work they do, especially when in the face of danger from higher authorities with a lot of power. BTS doesn’t come close to the people I have just listed (nor do they need to as they aren’t activists and shouldn’t be crusaded as such) who put their everything on the line to fight for their causes and future generations ahead. To say they are activists is a true insult to those that actually are. They are performative at best and lack an actual backbone and the required knowledge to enact true change. They are non-threatening in all matters political and never defy power structures (which is the whole point of being an activist). Going to the White House to speak about racism against Asian diaspora... whilst not being of asian diaspora, not having lived our experiences and not having that in-depth knowledge Asian American activists do is... questionable. What exactly can they discuss or really bring to the table regarding hate crimes against Asian ppl in a country they don’t live in??

I’m aware that ARMYs love to flex BTS as activists to add to their “bragging rights” of how “legendary” and “iconic” their fave group is but if you actually genuinely care for and respect activists and the causes they fight for, you would not consider BTS as activists. It’s very disrespectful and insulting to compare a few singing, dancing dudes that fling money sometimes and barely do anything significant for the causes they claim they support to people risking their lives for justice and human rights. All because they are ur faves doesn’t mean you have to worship everything they do. You can acknowledge when they make mistakes or do something hurtful or, in this case, when their activism is performative.

Also your implication that all activists are ugly is very... strange to say the least. To you, maybe. But not me, I never said that 🙅🏽‍♀️. Activism has nothing to do with fitting into conventional physical beauty standards but uh... you do you I guess!

#feel free to check out the activists I mentioned I provided links to their Wikipedia pages!#BTS being good looking and getting all of this credit for their performative activism... sounds like pretty privilege if anything #before anyone comments something weird PLEASE READ THRU THIS ENTIRELY #someone was acting funky in the replies... I don’t have energy for that so there goes the block lol!#they started off with “cute ... I’m not gonna be patronized by someone on behalf of BTS LOL #bottom line: they aren’t activists #nice and good ppl yes but not activists #u do have to meet certain requirements to consider yourself one #not being an activist doesn’t mean you are a terrible person lol #bee tee ess

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ballplayersxo · 2 years

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And the weirdest part about this whole honoring Kobe nonsense people are still going on about is that he would have never in a gazillion years reacted to these people’s passing the way they are reacting to his. I’m not just talking about Devin and Jason’s antics, Im also talking about Lamar Odom, who apparently isn’t doing the best financially, buying a chain of him and his daughter for thousands of dollars, Allen Iverson writing a whole ass essay about that man, Russel and Ciara basically taking his wife in and footing the bill to invite her to these vacations and Hollywood events even though she can afford it, ect. If the roles were reversed, Kobe would have just kept it cute, said something short on social media and went along with his life. He wasn’t that close to anybody in the league (or many people in general) just some people at front office bc he rubbed alot of players the wrong way.

thank you! cause it has to be said that the way people are honouring this man is a bit ridiculous. with those comments he made about people supporting trayvon martin? the rapist who had to get his wife back by giving her a 4 million dollar ring? the man who let the media villainize his black parents while he uplifted the exoticals who were very obviously racist? i won’t even get into it because a lot of people will be upset but i think all the kobe talk needs to rest

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quotesfrommyreading · 2 years

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From the White House on down, the myth holds that fatherhood is the great antidote to all that ails black people. But Billy Brooks Jr. had a father. Trayvon Martin had a father. Jordan Davis had a father. Adhering to middle-class norms has never shielded black people from plunder. Adhering to middle-class norms is what made Ethel Weatherspoon a lucrative target for rapacious speculators. Contract sellers did not target the very poor. They targeted black people who had worked hard enough to save a down payment and dreamed of the emblem of American citizenship—homeownership. It was not a tangle of pathology that put a target on Clyde Ross’s back. It was not a culture of poverty that singled out Mattie Lewis for “the thrill of the chase and the kill.” Some black people always will be twice as good. But they generally find white predation to be thrice as fast.

— The Case for Reparations (Ta-Nehisi Coates)

#ta-nehisi coates #the case for reparations #history #politics #american politics #respectability politics #racism #segregation #police brutality #police violence #oppression #discrimination #usa #african americans #trayvon martin #jordan davis

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pomsandpersep · 2 years

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The Consumption of Black Artistry and The Apathy For Black Lives

I’m fascinated by the way white people engage with black art. Not the fact that they like it, of course. In a world full of Doja Cats and Amanda Gormans and Kendrick Lamars and so on and so on, it would be a lot harder to imagine black art not being enjoyed and consumed voraciously. No, what fascinates me is the way that white audiences interact with it. At its best, it can spark social change and open eyes to the way the other half lives. At it’s worst…it’s hard to explain but I think the best way is by categorizing it in two ways: appropriation and blind consumption.

Appropriation is usually a little easier for people to grasp. Recently, the word critiques fashion trends associated with the black community like box braids or locs co-opted by non-black communities. When it comes to music, however, the conversation becomes murkier. Take, for example, Willie Mae Thorton. In 1952, she recorded her song “Hound Dog” to minimal acclaim and even less money. When Elvis Presley re-recorded the song four years later, however, it easily entered the record books as one of the most iconic rock songs written… with little to no credit given to Thorton. If you want a more recent example, try to think of the originator of the viral Tik Tok dance, the “Renegade”. Most people credit its origins to influencer Charli D’Amelio, pushing her to stardom. Very few people know the actual originator (myself included considering I had to Google her name twice before I wrote this), Jalaiah Harmon who received a fraction of that same fame. Ultimately, whether it’s fifty years ago or now, it comes down to the same idea: a willingness to interact with our products but not with us.

This of course begs the question, if that’s appropriation, then what do I mean by “blind consumption”? Glad you asked. In 2017, rapper Amine came out with the song “Carolina'' which used the n-word in the chorus and went viral. In live performances, however, he eventually began replacing the word with the phrase “If you ain’t black, don’t say it”. Five years later, I stood in front of my predominantly white high school and performed a spoken word on the dangers of white supremacy to accolades and praise from teachers and students alike, days after the school had received backlash for instituting metal detectors and heavy security presence during a basketball game against a visiting predominantly black high school. While those two instances seemingly don’t have a connection (I’m in no way implying my poetry will someday make me famous), they both highlight the same problem. It’s enjoyment of art created by black voices without critically examining your actions surrounding that enjoyment.

While these behaviors are bad enough, it ultimately shows a lack of empathy for black artists themselves. When it does come to bite back, it comes in the form of silence for the Eric Garners and the Trayvon Martins and the George Floyds and so on and so on. It speaks to how dehumanized we are that you like us when we’re entertaining you, as if in some modern-day minstrel show, but when it comes time to see us for our humanity you’re silent. In an interview, black author James Baldwin said, “I’m terrified at the moral apathy…which is happening in my country… they have become…moral monsters.” I’m terrified that what we’re dealing with is an ever-growing new generation of moral monsters. One that can bump our music in their cars while running over our bodies in the street.

Link to the Baldwin interview: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_15-0v89g5gf5r

#blacklivesmatter #writers on tumblr #text post #social justice #tumblr

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brookstonalmanac · 3 months

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Events 2.26

747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the epoch (origin) of the Nabonassar Era began at noon on this date. Historians use this to establish the modern BC chronology for dating historic events. 364 – Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman emperor. 1266 – Battle of Benevento: An army led by Charles, Count of Anjou, defeats a combined German and Sicilian force led by Manfred, King of Sicily. Manfred is killed in the battle and Pope Clement IV invests Charles as king of Sicily and Naples. 1365 – The Ava Kingdom and the royal city of Ava (Inwa) founded by King Thado Minbya. 1606 – The Janszoon voyage of 1605–06 becomes the first European expedition to set foot on Australia, although it is mistaken as a part of New Guinea. 1616 – Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun. 1775 – The British East India Company factory on Balambangan Island is destroyed by Moro pirates. 1794 – The first Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen burns down. 1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from exile on the island of Elba. 1870 – The Beach Pneumatic Transit in New York City, intending as a demonstration for a subway line opens. 1876 – Japan and Korea sign the Treaty of Kangwha, which grants Japanese citizens extraterritoriality rights in Korea, opens three Korean ports to Japanese trade, and ends Korea's status as a tributary state of Qing dynasty China. 1909 – Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London. 1914 – HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. 1919 – President Woodrow Wilson signs an act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park. 1929 – President Calvin Coolidge signs legislation establishing the 96,000 acres (390 km2) Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. 1935 – Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. 1935 – Robert Watson-Watt carries out a demonstration near Daventry which leads directly to the development of radar in the United Kingdom. 1936 – In the February 26 Incident, young nationalist Japanese military officers assassinate multiple cabinet statesmen and start a rebellion in downtown Tokyo, which is ended 3 days later. 1945 – World War II: US troops reclaim the Philippine island of Corregidor from the Japanese. 1952 – Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada. 1960 – A New York-bound Alitalia airliner crashes into a cemetery in Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board. 1966 – Apollo program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket. 1971 – U.N. Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day. 1979 – The Superliner railcar enters revenue service with Amtrak. 1980 – Egypt and Israel establish full diplomatic relations. 1987 – Iran–Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff. 1992 – First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Khojaly Massacre: Armenian armed forces open fire on Azeri civilians at a military post outside the town of Khojaly leaving hundreds dead. 1993 – World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six and injuring over a thousand people. 1995 – The UK's oldest investment banking institute, Barings Bank, collapses after a rogue securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange using futures contracts. 2008 – The New York Philharmonic performs in Pyongyang, North Korea; this is the first event of its kind to take place in North Korea. 2012 – Seventeen-year-old African-American student Trayvon Martin is shot to death by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman in an altercation in Sanford, Florida.

#Events

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