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luna-1234s-blog · 7 months

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The proud family: el fin de la inocencia... visto casi 2 años después 😅

Contexto...nunca vi la familia proud, el porque, nunca fue claro para mi , no se si fuer por los horarios o que , pero recuerdo que genuinamente me interesó en algún punto de mi infancia... pero no la vería hasta años después, me vi varios capítulos de la serie original, luego de su regreso y luego pude entender todo el drama que se hizo hace mucho

Ahora, tengo 2 criticas con este capítulo, el primero es que se sienten como 2 capítulos divididos, no entiendo que tiene que ver la inocencia y una fiesta de princesas, con el tema del colorismo, porque no se manejan bien ,digo , pudieron haber hecho algo con las princesas, y como por mucho tiempo.... incluso actualmente, se basaron en estándares difíciles de conseguir para un grupo de mujeres, digo , traten de tener la cintura de Meg y no morir en el proceso, pero siento que ni se mezclan bien, que la situación de la pelea pudo ser en cualquier otro lado, incluso en el propio baile , todo seguirá igual, y tendría más lógica , siento que es un gran comercial dentro de la jodida serie , que realmente no tiene lógica ,ya lo e visto en otras series y se siente forzado, tipo , o lo estás viendo en pirata y te puedes piratear las otras películas de las cuales hablas , o estás pagando el servicio y te ponen a ver otro comercial que ya debes aguantar en YouTube, ahora, mi otra critica... porque carajo escogería a esas princesas?

No se ustedes, pero yo me suelo disfrazar bajo 2 estándares, lo que esta a tu disposición, y los personajes que te atraen... a menos que sea evento de la escuela , en fin , pero analizando bien todo el asunto... porque carajos las niñas escogerian esos personajes para disfrazarse?, lo voy a ir desmenuzado personaje, por personaje ... bueno, casi

Número 1 Penny y Dijonay : ok, las pondré juntas por 1 simple razón... que son las únicas que tienen lógica, digo , si miramos a las princesas y luego a las niñas , estará claro que podrían ser perfectamente personajes agradables para ellas , Penny aún si no es perfecta , siempre se notó tuvo este aire que luchar por lo que quiere y por sus derechos , cosa que podría verse también en Tiana , además de que su familia siempre se a mostrado orgulloso de sus raíces, y literalmente seria la única opción... porque no tenemos más princesa Disney afroamericanas, y al menos ella viene de un contexto presumiblemente familiar para la familia proud , no es la representación perfecta, pero allí está, luego esta Dijonay , la cual con su actitud de diva , no es raro que le guste una princesa como las Cenicienta, y piense menos en la representación, se que en el capítulo se habla también de una versión negra de la Cenicienta, pero se siente extraño, lo volveré a explicar más adelante, pero porque estás niñas se preocuparian por buscar una princesa que sea exactamente de su misma etnia?, pero en este caso no me quejare porque tiene lógica, puedo ver a esta niña enamorada de la Cenicienta

. LaCienega: ahora, posiblemente el problema aquí es que no veo a LaCienega como una fan de Elana , digo , si , es latina, pero realmente ella no es una princesa tan popular, sin mencionar que viene de una caricatura muy infantil, que para una chica de 15 años , que siempre cuida su imagen... se ve raro , incluso me sorprendió que Penny no se mofa viendo su relación, personalmente, la hubiera puesto como Blancanieves, ya que noto que es una princesa demasiado popular en países latinos , y en la comunidad hispana , no por nada eligieron a una actriz latina para interpretar a Blancanieves, y esto no es un tema nuevo , miren descendientes y como escogieron a una chica de ascendencia Colombiana para ser la reina malvada, carajo , creo que la mitad de niñas de mi ciudad tuvieron una fiesta temática de Blancanieves , yo incluida , Elena no es necesariamente una mala representación latina (bueno , más o menos), pero no tiene lógica con el personaje de LaCienega

Michael: de hecho fue este disfraz el que me hizo escribir esto , veran , me gusta investigar sobre la representación, y en algún punto decidí buscar sobre el tema de Pocahontas... y dios , sabes cuánta gente powhatan odia esta película?, me encontré algunos comentarios positivos, pero en general, no se considera la mejor representación, entonces se me hace muy extraño que el escogiera este disfraz, en primera porque es literalmente racista, hay gente que incluso lo usa como insulto, y segunda porque no tiene sentido , el siendo el chico glamuroso que es , prefiera a esta princesa por sobre otras con vestuarios más llamativos, creo que hubiera sido mejor que se vistiera de Elsa , viendo que el personaje estuvo siendo señalado por años como codificación queer , y que simplemente tiene un vestuario más glamuroso y menos casual

Maya : esto me decepciona, porque Beyoncé es en si mismo todo lo que el personaje de Maya critica , el capitalismo andante , y como muchas personas suelen usar movimientos para capitalizarlos, que si , en años recientes se volvió más vocal, pero se me ocurren muchos más personajes que tendrían sentido para esta chica , porque no disfrazarse de la reina Njinga de Angola, o de Harriet Tubman, o si quieres mantener la temática Disney , porque no vestirla del Dr. Facilier , digo , creo que sería chistoso ver como ella empatiza con este villano ,un hombre negro harto de la pobreza y la segregación, llegando a métodos sanguinarios para tener un poco de lo que siempre tuvieron los hombres que los esclavizaron, hubiera ido más con el personaje a mi parecer

Zoe : llegamos a la última, y es que no entiendo , porque se disfrutaría del personaje de Merida , de hecho me parece algo que usarían más personajes como Maya , creo que si pudiera ponerle una princesa Disney, sería la princesa Leía , o incluso Bella , lo único que tienen en común es que son pelirrojas , no va con su vibra nerd

Una oportunidad desperdiciada : ahora, hace algún tiempo hubo una polémica con respecto al cosplay y si personas de etnias diferentes debían hacer cosplay de un personaje diferente a ellos , y creo que si hubieran colocado esto , podría haber combinado mejor con la trama principal, ponte , que las niñas no se disfracen de personajes de su misma etnia, y que solo les recordara a todo el asunto de Zoe ( debo decir también que el capítulo sería escrito para que ellas no fueran tan malas , quedan mal pareadas a mi parecer , especialmente Maya , aquí apoyarían a su amiga solo para subirle el autoestima a un personaje que siempre tuvo problemas con ella ) aquí se podría ver otro tipo de debate , el si realmente es malo disfrazarse de estos personajes, y sientiendose inseguras con este tema, solo para al final ver que realmente ese no debe ser un tema que se interponga en su amistad, si, saben que son de diferentes contextos, pero aquí Zoe vería la preocupación de sus amigas por estos temas, incluso seria genial que se viera como defiende a sus amigas de su novio tras ver que se disfrazan de princesa que no son de color , quedaría un poco como salvadora blanca , pero al menos las chicas quedan bajo una mejor luz , y se hablaría más de la empatía

Por último diré que Maya me desagrado en este capítulo, a lo mejor fue el doblaje , pero todo el pinche capítulo fue de chismosa con lo de que al tipo le gustaban solo las blancas , cuando no lo sabían a ciencia cierta , vio como sus amigas se peleaban , y para colmo al final se llena la boca de como siempre hablo de la sororidad, cuando eso es una falsedad brutal , ella solo lo dijo porque quería ver el mundo arder

#the proud family #lacienega boulevardez #penny proud #dijonay jones #michael collins #zoey howzer #Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins #racisim #colorism #racismo #colorismo

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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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Proud Family Black History Month Special: I Had a Dream and Juneteenth (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Happy Black History Month all you happy people! And once again we're celebrating it with the Proud Family.

Last year Louder and Prouder launched and I covered it as it did and soon after covered Father Figures, it's wonderful ep about gay parents. I.. never finished the season as none of the episodes apart from Al Roker as Himself, a Magical Genie intrested me. And yes I will likely do all threre Al Roker as Himself, A Magical Genie episodes at some point. It didn't seem BAD it's just the inherent meanness in a lot of the comedy, some of the stuff that hadn't aged well like Oscar hitting on women who aren't his wife, and other probelms simply .. hadn't gone away and there's no excuse given the creators had two whole decades to refelct on the original series. THey still did well updating it for today in both clothing and refrences and the series is still deeply entrenched in black culture in a wonderful way, so it wasn't bad I just wasn't intrested.

Thankfully Season 2.. seems to be an improvement, as the creators have now proven the show can be a hit and thus are running with the creative freedom. Just from the clips i've seen, I intend to watch the seaosn in full when I have the time, their going hard. As someone with Autisim, their treatment of it seems nuanced, deep , and incredibly well done and heartfelt, and it seem the season has a nice ballance of usual hyjinks and some fairly deep subjects done well and that kids could bear to know about like colorisim, slave ownership and just how much the country was BUILT on slavery, as shown in what's now become the series most notable scene and ione i've watched a LOT at this point, despite seeming to come at the end of an episode that has nothing to do with the topic, yet still feeling fully waranted

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And that's what brings us here. See in the wake of this, as those of you thankfully off twitter may not be aware of tons of right wing trolls came out of their troll holes to gnash their teeth at how THE PROUD FAMILY IS WOKE NOW and HOW DARE YOU BRAINWASH OUR CHILDREN. Which is extra hilarious as I didn't know till watching today's episode from Louder and Prouder, Juneteenth, that they actually TACKLE this sort of thing and it has a term: White Fragility, where white people with thin skin get defensive at the first sign their history is racist among other things. They even brought up a books pecifically that i'm now going to try and get simply because I want to avoid this sort of shit myself. Seriously i'm not making this shit up, they likely knew damn well at least one of the episodes would piss off white people, and were well prepared for it.. and they proved them right. And i'm white myself.. and I find our history of slavery, racasim and overall colonalist bullshit fucking horrifying. It's the right thing to do. It's bad when you find out something or someone you belivied in was horrible. It sucks, but the responsible thing is to move on, not support it, and let history show.

It also brought up a valid point: Proud Family WAS ALWAYS woke. While it didn't have as many episodes covering it tha'ts not because "Oh they got worse with age". Shows CAN change in revivials and sometims for the worse… but this really isnt' it. It's a simple fact that they coudln' likely tackle topics like police brutality, slave ownership and racisim int eachers without the network yanking their collars and letting their white fragility get the better of them. We live in a time where we can now have those discussions we shoudl've been having all along. And to show it i'm covering two episodes and while this was comissoned, I gladly would've done it for free…. I mean I need money to eat, and I could think of worse things to cover for money.. mostly because I just did staurday

But still, let's take a look at the proud family then and now and see how stupid people are being while we honor black history month with two episodes focused on black history

I Had a Dream

I Had a Dream was the shows black history month episode, coming in season one. The plot is simple: To teach Penny's class about black history, something she's relutcant on as she figures "what's past is past" but still takes to the task wholeheartdly, their teacher has each of his class dress up as a black historical figure. He also goes into the origins of the holiday, something I wasn't familiar with. WHile I saw this episode as a kid i'd clearly forgotten this part in the haze of history: in 1946, historan Carter G. Woodson wanted to spotlight black achivements and thus created Negroe History Week. And in a nice touch he corrects Penny on saying african american as not only was that the closest to a pc term as the time.. but white people called Black Persons MUCH worse, a way to refrence the giant and horrifying parade of horrible slurs without saying them since disney likely had one reaction to them coming up

But they get by with Negro and Colored, both terms I hope never to have to type again. Penny's friends are dicks to an uptight white janitor played by my boy Stephen Root whose somehow important to this episode and penny slips leading exactly where you think it's going to end up.

Penny gets Angela Davis, activist, author and professor. Oscar both gave her the natural necessary to pull off the part and is said to help her study a touch I like, as well as the fact he celebrates freely not only putting on a dashiki at breakfast (and making a fun sarcastic comment about the fact that black history month is the shortest month of the year), but hosting the levar burton film festival. I'm with Trudy i'm not sure there is enough films for one of those and I did look it up. It's mostly tv movies and mini series like roots. Though if it includes Roots and Star Trek The NExt Generation i'm down and it should fill out the night. I love that it shows Oscar, despite often being a dummy… has depth and really knows his own culture and history and encourages that in his daughter. It's something i've noticed in black media with Jumstart making a habit out of it early on of having Marcy quiz her husband joe every year to be ready to teach their children when they got older. I mean their now stuck at 10 and `12 for eternity but still.

Djonay is awful as usual and gets a way better icon than she deserves: Betsy Coleman, one of the first black women pilots. @jess-the-vampire, who I watched these eps with, actually knew a LOT about her, and gladly shared: she had to go to france because she coudln't get taught here, was mostly a stunt performer, and died in a tragic plane accent because planes weren't exactly safe back then. Lacienga is the first black woman to run for president Shirley Chisom and Zoey is CJ Walker, self made milonare. Also while we thankfully don't see sticky he's al sharpton, actvisit, preacher and anti-semite.

Penny gets swept up in winds wizard of Oz Style and winds up in 1955. This part of the episode is… eh. I do like how it shows just how only close to 50 years before this epissode things were worse: black acomplishments weren't recognized (I mean.. even more than they were at the time. I didn't even know a black man invented the traphic light), Zoey avoids her and the school's play area is segregated.. but weirdly the class isn't? Also Stephen Root is the teacher and their teacher is the janitor because racisim. Why they made Janitor Man the token racist is beyond me, esepcailly sinc ein the present he dosen't come off racist just overly obessive about cleaning and wasn't INTENDED to be a bad guy, as the kids later apologize and claen up the hallway for him. So why make him one for this scene?

That ends up being this episodes problem: for those saying "oh proud family isn't subtle anymore".. they never were. This episode is about as subtle as a brick to the head with a note attached saying GET IT IT WAS WORSE. THe episode isn't AWFUL, as it shows both how arbitrary these things were, and dosen't entirley sugarcoat things… it does a little,e specially in comparison to say the color of friendship which I reviewed for a previous black history month, but it still uses the term colored, has Oscar not happy with Penny befriending zoey, and still has the fucking army show up when Penny leads a sit in for immigration. But it honestly also feels a bit … makes it easy. Penny easily gets dream zoey to turn, has a fucking musical number with sticky and recites had a dream. The only thing that makes any of this over the top, "let's all dance and skip" tyep of aseop work is that A) it was likely all they could do at the time and B) it is LITERALLY penny's dream, so the naitvite and toned down aspects come off as what a 12 year old who dosen't likely know just how horrible things were or how severe the punishment for speaking out could get's version of things.

That said taking it as a product of it's time.. it's fantastic and still has a valuale lesson. While ti's watered down yes, the fact they could do this ep at all is a lot, and it's lesson is important for kids: don't forget the past. It's an easy aseop sure but given how much of black history was buried, evne more than I ever realized, and how much said past can be whitewashed and glorified to make people who were racist or had racist tendencys or parts to them that were just awful even if a lot of their actions were noble. HIstory is best when you admit the hard parts with the easy and do not forget what's happened lest it repeat.

And thus while this episode was decent enough.. it makes it fitting that it's sequel series has a spirtual followup: while I agreed to do these episodes before rewatching and watching them, the two end up synching up perfectly. This one was about not forgetting your own history and how hard it was as there's still a ways to go. Juneteenth.. is about those ways to go, facing hard truths, and fighting even when ti's far from easy. This one avoided the consequences of standing up for what you belivie in. This one…. fully leans into them. So without further ado….

Juneteenth

I would be shocked if this episode dosen't make my best of the year list for 2023. This was one powerful as hell half hour that was well done, honest, and awesome.

This one focuses on Maya, the new additon to the series and an activist who acts exactly how a 13 year old actvisit would: often smart and on point, but also just as often lost in her own cause. This one though has her entirely in the right.. but in a way that fits.

So Smithville, where our heroes have lived all this time as it has a name now, is having a celebration honoring it's founder Christan A. Smith, hosted by Mayor Wizard Kelly Ya'll, both of which you can probably took as I did as red flags.

Turns out he's realted to Maya's dad barry, whose going nto get honored as his decendant at a big ceremony and Maya's proud of her heritage. So naturally since she's proud in the proud family.. she gets haunted by a ghost.

Yeah the episode has the ghost of what seems to be a black teenager follow Maya around, hinting that the supposed narrative about smith isn't what he thinks it is. We also get some nice microagression from Maya's teacher who at first refuses to belivie maya is a decendant and then says "It's not really your history is it

Like holy shit we went from "White janitor who'se really cool in real life honest guys and racist teacher verison comes around" to "White Teacher micro agression". It's what I meant: the show was always woke.. it just didn't fully go into the implications of things. Back then they woudl've been told "this wasn't realistic" or some such bullshit. Now they can do this freely and it's.. honest. I was white in school but my own textbooks barely touched on the restoration and glossed over a fact that's key to this episode: that some states held out on slavery and got assurances from Lincoln they wouldn't be effected by abolition. That was just to get the south. Because my own state didn't want to admit it's past wrongs it was framed as "oh well missouri just was for slavery but it was all cool you guys honest. "

And she never.. really gets a compuance. She's shown comtpemplating at the end but.. she never apologizes or anything for what she did or her hero worship of Smith. She's not used as the easy villian of the piece either tho: she's not leading the celebration ons mith: she's just a white idiot worshipping another white idiot and unitenotally conributing to whtie washing his history.

Maya starts to question her history, but holds back from bringing in her dad as h'es so happy. Also we get to see Barry shirtless.

just.. hot damn. I didn't know village people biker was a thing for me. Randall is a damn lucky man.. as is Barry. Just holy shit. I needed a moment.

Back to the actual point of the episode. KJ helps his sister as she can't find anything. And here I get the sense that while the creators of proud family MARGINALLY understand the internet better than they did when they did a whole episode comparing napster to drug addiction and pointing out how record stores would di ebecause of it and other dog whistling… they still really don't as they go to

Which.. isn't how that works. I mean there are other search engines But it is clear Wizard Kelly Google Ya'll is hiding his history before th efounding and something is up.. and while cleaning up his statue with walking white privlage , the ghost poitns Maya to a box that gives her hard evdience to her suspcions: a Diary of Emily, a black woman around their age who lived in Smithville back then.

Since Maya RIGHTFULLY thinks Mrs Karen wouldn't be of any help at best and hide this at worst they instead go to another teacher, Brother Kwame, played by my boy Leslie Odom Junior. Kwame reads the diary out, as it turns out to be the diary of Emily, a young slave who not only planned a Juneteenth in secret.. but was OWNED by smith. Smith owned slaves. And look a white man owned slaves.. isn't shocking. Even George Washington did and Thoms Jerfferson outright assulted one. But the larger point here is it was covered up: that instead of just having open discourse about this man's history and if we really should be on the side of someone who when given the option to let his slaves go or not did not, it was buried. That we shoudlnt' celebrate someone whose inherently awful because of heritage in shit if the bad he did outweighed the good. Keeping people chained up for his own convience trumps "founded a town I guess". Some other white man likely woudl've founded this town. It's not that big bro. HIding history dosen't make it any less fucked up and celebrating fucked up people isn't good. It's whY Colombus Day needs to stop being a thing: because he acomplished ntohing and was just a racist colonizing rapist. Hiding the past.. dosen't make it not there.

So with that Kwame decides to go talk with Wizard Kelly, ya'll, while Maya is forced to tell her dad the awful truth. And Barry, being an upstanding man, loving father and nice dude.. entirley denys it and can't belivie it sending his daughter away in tears. And Randall.. dosent remotely tolerate his shit not backing him up and pointing out his white fragility. And while yeah , plugging the book directly could be a step too far given I didn't know this term existed and now want to read said book, I say it works and frankly more people need to knwo it's an actual term and how to combat themselves doing it. Barry reads it and the animatoin here is wonderful as his face shows he clearly sees himself in the page Randall had ready… but can't bring himself to admit it. And i'm not immune to this: while i've never loudly said "no YOUR wrong that can't be true"… it still took until this episode pointed out Lincoln wasn't just not for freeing the slaves but wanted to simply DEPORT ALL BLACK PEOPLE, for me to finally just shake the notion he wasn't a great person. He did good trying to sew the country back together but he didn't free the slaves and he wasn't trying to do it because slavery was wrong. And I wasn't even that ATTACHED to lincoln, it was just hard to find out something i'd been told my whole life was entire bullshit. It can be hard when you have an emotoinal stake… but it also means you have to do the hard thing and cut tha tpart out of you. When I found out JK Rowling was the TERF she is I sold all my harry potter stuff: it didn't fund her and if you can watch the films and seperate art from artist, go ahead. But I just couldn't bear to have something attached to that monster in me. It was hard to cut out that part of my childhood.. but it needed to be done. You don't pretend it didn't exist, but you acknowlege it's tainted now and may never be the same and you may neve renjoy it NOW like you once did, and that's okay. As with the previous episode this one is about learning from the mistakes of the past instead of trying to simply "move on" and act like it never happened.. and no the irony on me isn't lost disney does this sort of thing constantly and I doubt it was lost on the writers of this episode.

SHOCKINGLY the grossly corrupt billionare mayor who has shown not one iota of a soul to this point didn't respond to an underpaid school teacher bringing the book to him, respnding with "It was in the past ya'll". So our heroes have to go with plan b…. well okay plan C. Lacienga's plan B was "PULL THAT FUCKING STATUE DOWN BITCHES".. I mean she didn't say it that way but it was in her tone. Brother Kwame instead sugggests simply protesting.. though dosen't join in for some reason. Which is somehow the weridest plot element in an episode with a ghost. Though givne we've had actual genie al rooker, talking babies and pandas, and it taking till apparently THIS SEASON for Oscar to get his factory shut down for gross violations when he's far from rich enough to bribe officals, it's far from teh least realistic thing that's happened on this show.

The actual protest.. is brutal as.. it's shockingly realistic. Our heroes simply show up protesting.. and Wizard Kelly's response is to "put those kids in cuff's ya'll". Seriously all the dialouge he has this episode sounds like I wrote it but no, he really says that

And I like that it's Wizard Kelly who does it: they don't invent a white boogie man or have the teacher from before sick the cops on them or pull a karen. They have someone whose black himself simply sick the system on chidlren because the lie he's kept is more convient to his pocket than the truth. It shows how the system is inherently racist to the point it benefits the rich of any race to buy into it instead of fight it. It also helps Wizard Kelly is genuinely awful and him sicking police on children sounds like something he'd do because they stepped on his lawn or something.

Seeing these children swarmed by faceless goons really sells just how.. horrirfyign the police can be, how they don't care about age or diffrence just abotu enforcing whatever someone tells them to enforce. The facelessness ot me shows regradless of color, though i'm sure that color is mostly white, the system itself is designed to opress instead of help. The kids parents and even Barry and Sunset despite being cops themselves get swept under and everyone ends up in prison.

We get a truly heartwrenching scene and props to Zachary Quinto for his delivery: Barry admits he was wrong and it was just hard to admit adn dosen't expect his daughter to forgive him, but apologizes. It's what we all should do when confrotned with something like this: accept the truth, and deal with it like an adult. Given several people's responses to JUST the "slaves built this country" segment alone was

It's clear it's a lesson that BADLY needed to be said. The right path.. is almost never the easy one. But Barry took it and his daugher warmly accepts her dad back. We also get a brave action as our heroes choose to remain in prison till shit changes.

So one month later, though I assume Wizard Kelly kept them in there like. .a week at most, things have changed and the town has been renamed to emily ville with Maya reading her diary and fear.. and us finding out that unlike dying as was implied earlier (a bold move in itself) she lived a long happy life and her kids are there. It's a touching end that shows we still have a ways to go.. but we CAN change things to make it better as Maya and her dads watch emily, now as she was when she died head back into the great beyond.. and also have a lot of questions now they know ghosts are real but that's for next season.

I loved this episode.

Yeah shocking I know, but it was beauitfully done, nuanced and a true triumph. It has convinced me to watch the rest of (or at least most of) season 2, and is worth your time this black history month. Both episodes are.. but it's clear with the restraints gone this is what the proud family crew was capable of and it is glorious. Check this one out asap. And as you can see… Proud Family was always woke and always shoudl be and if they keep pulling out home runs like this it might become one of the best shows of two diffrent generations. We'll have to see but honestly, I can say it left me wanting more and more.. and that ain't bad at all. Thanks for reading

#the proud family #disney #black history month #juneteenth #I have a dream #penny proud #maya leibowitz jenkins #louder and prouder

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