#so now as revenge her son decided to get back at these klan members | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

roobylavender · 2 years

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it’s really quite concerning to me how many people are black and white about bruce’s no killing rule (esp in recent years) bc i don’t think there’s a full cognizance yet of how easily that insistence upon all killing being the same and equally deplorable can facilitate the white supremacist rhetoric that believes killing oppressors is equivalent to killing the oppressed, anti-racism is equivalent to racism, etc. it’s why it’s always odd to me how mike w. barr is such a frowned upon batman writer for depicting a bruce who will not necessarily go out of his way to kill but will not save certain villains either bc he understands the egregious of their crimes and inflicted harm upon humanity. it’s a “gray area” that’s necessary to explore esp when taking into account the harm inflicted upon marginalized communities at large, and even then barr wasn’t free from falling prey to the rhetoric that all intentional violence is equivalent regardless of which race or class of people it was perpetuated by. obv i agree with most people that in context of under the red hood bruce is right to not use his vigilantism as an excuse to play god and decide who lives or dies, and i always make the point that bruce originally was intent to kill the joker only to be stopped from doing so by other people. but i wonder now if the conclusions to under the red hood and jason’s depiction thereafter inadvertently allowed for the facilitation of that white supremacist rhetoric i mentioned earlier bc jason being written by a white writer didn’t allow for a proper contention with the topic of marginalized communities and their relationship with violent resistance. the complexity of the no kill rule and whether it enables oppressors (even in cases where bruce is more lenient and willing to allow villains to die despite not pulling the trigger himself) is something that needs to be addressed by nonwhite writers specifically, and it’s no wonder that the potential for really potent social commentary with it is all but absent in the modern day considering main batman titles have never been written by anyone other than white men, not to mention the genre is alarmingly christian dominated now despite its jewish anti-fascist origins

#this is an incoherent mess sorry. i read dc annual two and i have a lot of thoughts #short summary of the issue: a story about bruce's brief time being mentored under a detective in huntsville #they were both on a case where a group of men in their fiftiesish kept being lynched #and bruce eventually discovers that the mastermind is a biracial black man who is killing these men in retaliation for their activities #as klan members. bc one of them happened to father a child (him) with his black mother and she 'blackmailed' that klan member #so in retaliation he and his friends raided her town and slaughtered everyone including her #so now as revenge her son decided to get back at these klan members #and in the end it's like. bruce moralizing to the guy about how killing is wrong blah blah blah and vengeance is bad or whatever #like he does mention once that maybe the guy's 'victims' deserved it but #he's unequivocally written as frowning upon it and making the guy feel bad for avenging his mother bc she was literally a klan victim #and idk it just got me thinking like. even in the best case scenarios where bruce is lenient about who he's okay with seeing die #at what point does he become an enabler bc he's just waiting for some of the bad people to die #bc he's in that place of privilege as a white man who doesn't have to think about taking action into his own hands #marginalized communities can't just wait for their oppressors to die. and it's alarming to make bruce lecture a black man about that esp #oh btw the best part about all of this is this issue was written by mark waid lol. fucking racist weirdo #personal essays

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roamerrobot · 7 years

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Roamer Makes Friends

On the 21st September 2014 Roamer became the first robot to sign the European Pledge to Peace. Signing a petition says you agree with a cause. Signing a Pledge means you will do something about it. Roamer has visited schools and engaged students in tasks aimed at getting them to think about the issue of peace. Last September they visited Oldham (the first UK Council to sign the pledge) and supported their Peace Week Activities. On the 24th September Roamer went back to the town and called in on St Matthews C of E Primary School to work with a group of Year 2 students. It was one of those days which make you think, “I did something worthwhile today.

You’re about to find out what happened to 60 students in the hour-long session. The school motto expresses the values we want out children to cherish.

Fittingly, it's Red Nose Day as the children file in to the school hall sporting red nose regalia.

Some need a bit reassurance.

But, as the bright sun shines through the window, class teacher, Ms Huby, sits the children down around the large Roamer Drawing Mat.

Roamer’s assistant, Kate, starts telling the class about the little robot. They’d never seen her before.

This may be a lesson about peace, but you can’t keep that little devil Roamer away from maths. What’s a diagonal? Student hands shoot up and good answers pour out. The lesson has grabbed their attention: they’re fully engaged. How far does Roamer travel to get across the diagonal? More hands shoot up and estimate range from 9 to 25. Fortunately, children can use Roamer to test their ideas.

A few tries later and everyone holds their breath: will Roamer make it? “Yeah! The diagonal is 20 Roamer steps.”

In five minutes the children have learnt how to program Roamer. More Roamers appeared ready for action.

We put a pen into Roamer so it’s ready to draw a path.

The first task: Send Roamer to someone who likes the same food as you?

Off Roamer goes drawing a line between two students.

Send Roamer to someone who makes you laugh. Send the robot to someone with your hair colour. Program Roamer to go to someone who likes the your football team, or who likes the same colour as you. You’ve got a pet dog? Send Roamer to someone who has a dog.

Who likes chocolate ice cream?

The questions keep coming and the children keep programming sending Roamer scurrying from one student to another.

All the time the students program the robot and work at their maths: non-standard units, estimation, using numbers and ideas like too far, not far enough. At the end of the lesson, a mass of lines criss-crossed the floor mat. What does this mean?

The lines created a network of similarities, showing the children what they shared.

They got to know more about each other in the last half hour than they’ve ever done before - Class Teacher Mrs Ollernshaw

Kate talked to children about finding what we have in common, not the differences between us. She gave an example. The day before our visit had seen the burial of former IRA Military Commander-in-Chief, Martin McGuinness. He later became Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister. The leader of the Ulster Unionists was the Reverend Ian Paisley. The two hated each other and would gladly see the other dead. Yet when the Northern Ireland Peace process started, they had to start to work together and to everyone’s amazement they started to work together and became friends. Why? Because they concentrated on what their shared interests, not their disagreements.

Martin McGuinness and the Reverend Ian Paisley became known as the Chuckle Brothers.

Some famous fictional stories tell about how people who did not like each other became friends.

Elisabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Harry Potter and Professor Severus Snape (they both loved Harry’s mother and Harry named his son Severus).

Sworn Enemies Who Formed Inspiring Friendships

You can read their stories and other examples in the comments in the blog Cracked.

A British Prisoner of war looked for his torturer for 50 years. He wanted revenge, but becomes his friend instead.

A black civil rights activist bonds with the Ku Klux Klan member sent to sabotage her work.

Rwandan genocide survivor starts a charity with the man who chopped off her hand and killed her daughter.

All of this is horrid stuff, but you can use traditional stories to engage the children (even though many of these include grim bits they usually end happily ever after). You can adapt the “Golden Rule” story of Li-Li and her mother-in-law.

When a Chinese girl named Li-Li married she lived with her mother-in-law. Since the mother-in-law was obnoxious, Li-Li decided to kill her. She went to her doctor to get slow-acting poison. The doctor said, "Just so that people don't suspect you, be nice your mother-in-law." So Li-Li was kind to her mother-in-law as she slipped a little poison into her food each day. Now something strange happened: they started to like each other. They found out that they had a lot in common and became best friends. So Li-Li went back to the doctor and said, "I now love my mother-in-law and don't want to kill her; please give me something to counteract the poison." The doctor replied, "I gave you ordinary vitamins; the only poison was in your attitude."

If You Have A Roamer You Can Take Part...

The Roamer Peace Wall Project

Useful Links

Roamer Signs EU’s Pledge to Peace

How to Use Roamer to Bring about World Peace

2 Ways Roamer Supported Oldham's Latest Peace Efforts

Roamer's Pledge to Peace Makes Progress

Roamer Movie Premiers at the US Congress

Acknowledgements

Valiant would like to thank all the St Matthews C of E Primary School Year 2 students who participated (you were delightful) and teachers Ms Huby and Mrs Ollernshaw. The school Teaching Assistant Mrs Ackroyd and Richard Outram, Secretary of The Oldham Pledge to Peace Forum for helping to organise the event. And finally the School Admin Assistant Lucy Pomfrey for helping sort the photos.

#Roamer #educational robots #Roamer's Pledge to Peace #EU's Pledge to Peace #Oldham Peace Forum #St Matthew's C of E Primary Oldham #Roamer Peace Wall

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