#BIRACIAL WALLY WEST RIGHTS | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

silent-raven13 · 11 months

Photo

Okay for my Modern Welcome Au fanfic, I’m making a Mother’s Day chapter, and I decided to draw all the moms. Everyone except for Miss Beagle is my own thoughts how they would look.

Miss Beagle belongs to Clown aka PartyCoffin. I just fan drew her in a cute Barnaby’s paw print apron (You can see his pup print and the large one) and I decided to give her a first name for the fanfic, since she needs one and a cute mama nickname. “Big Mama Betty”

Anyway in order!

Monique Dear “Mama Dear”: Mother of Eddie Dear lives in Louisiana and is a post-man. Her husband die in a terrible truck accident before Eddie was born. She is a feisty, spunky woman that loves to go out doors, train for anything survival. She is a sweet mother and big tiger mom. When she sees her groan son, she would give him a bear hug and pick him up like he was a toddler. Very accepting and would sound like Carol from OK KO (VA: Kate Flannery) She’s always working out, since she have to lift heavy packages, and can cook!

Eleanor Frankly “Mother Frankly”: Mother of Frank. A calm, soft spoken woman. She is a Neurosurgeon, has the most steadiest hands. When she uses knives or scissors, she always cuts beautifully; one thing Eddie finds amazing because hello Crafting! She’s very intelligent, comes from a very wealthy family. Lives in New York, specifically Mid Manhattan with her husband. Yes, they are happily married, but once they saw Monique... 🤭 let’s just say they wanted to do a poly relationship.

Serenity Joyful “Mama Llama”: Mother of Julie. A funny nickname Jonesy came up when he was a toddler and stuck to the Joyful family. Don’t mind the colorful vomit skirt, rainbow monsters love to represent their family. Since, Serenity is all about Maximalism boho-chic outfits, she loves to represent her children’s colors. Believes in nature, spirituality, crystal healing, and listens to trees. Very laid back, sweet, and always goofy. Believes problems can be solved with yoga and Chamomile tea. Lives in the Rainbow Forest not far from the Welcome Home Residents.

Charlotte Partridge “Mama Lottie”: Mother of Poppy. She’s exactly like Poppy, but sweeter like honey! Very caring, hates cursing, and she knows how to cook. Her socks were made by Poppy, when she learned how to sew. Loves to support and protect all her children. She will treat everyone like her own kids. Lives in West Virginia!

Maria Gloria Pillar Garcia “La Jefe or Tu Jefe”: Mother of Howdy. In my fanfic, Howdy is Mexican American. As a joke, him and siblings like to call their mom, the boss or say, “Tu Jefe esta llamando” It’s a thing I noticed with Latino Americans say about their parents like the joke, “Your mom is calling you or My mom...” You don’t have to get it if you don’t. It’s a thing I’ve seen. Anyway, she’s the boss of the family, and knows how to run things. I mean this woman gave birth over 300 caterpillars, so she has the right to run her family and the family’s ranch. What I can say about her? She’s a Monarch butterfly, lives in Michoacán, Mexico. Used to live in East LA.

Chantelle Darling “Mother Darling: Mother of Wally. Lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She’s funny, nice, but cross the line with her and she’s the first to fight. Very protective of Wally, and his a widow. So her and Monique are gonna get along just fine.

Miss Beagle “Big Mama Betty”: Mother of Barnaby. That dog is a HUGE mama’s boy! Everyone in the neighborhood knows her, she’s sweetest Mother Hen.

I’ma say this too. If they were Humans, All of them except Maria and Monique would be African American/black! Monique would be biracial. Maria would be Mexican American with dark brown skin tone. My Au is about inclusivity for BIPOC/POC.

58 notes · View notes

aafroditee · 4 years

Note

Any/all of the Robins!

Boy howdy do I love the Robins!! I could talk about them all day!

Dick Grayson:

The only cop that deserves rights.

ESFP

Curly dark brown hair that's almost black, blue-grey eyes with long eyelashes,

Lucky Charms are his favorite cereal.

Has his own place in Bludhaven but still visits the Manor a few times a month to visit his bros.

To me, Dick is in his early 30s.

Scorpio Sun, Sagittarius Moon, Aquarius Rising

Bisexual

Loves all his siblings but Damian is his favorite. He feels he failed Jason in the older brother department and wants to do the opposite with Damian.

Hasn’t completely forgiven Bruce, but is on cordial terms with him.

Wally West is his ex and best friend.

The most sympathetic out of the Robins. Always there for them but doesn’t give them the chance to return the favor.

Doesn't open up about his struggles as much as he should, a trait he inherited from Bruce.

Jason Todd:

African-American

Nice fade that he maintains, has GREEN eyes and the white streak in his hair from being resurrected,

INFJ

Doesn’t trust cops or any other form of authority really. Watched them abused their power when he was on the streets and he also doesn’t trust the government.

I like the version of Jason that had to dig himself out of his own grave instead of the Lazarus Pit story line with Talia and Ra’s. So, he still has his autopsy scar and is insecure about it.

Claustrophobic

Has abandonment issues and pretends like he doesn’t

Doesn’t stop killing criminals, kills the worst of the worst and doesn’t feel bad about it. Also kills the Joker and no one stops him,

Doesn’t try to run the criminal underground, tries to eradicate the criminal underground

Genuinely loves Gotham City and wants to make it better

Helps get kids off the streets and out of the gangs that take advantage of them,

Him and Roy go after domestic abusers and help the women to get out,

Looks out more for the people of Gotham than running around after the costumed criminals,

Dating Roy and is the best step dad to Lian Harper,

Baby proofed his entire apartment and buys matching outfits for all 3 of them cuz he’s that dorky dad,

Is the closet to Tim, got over that whole replacement issue when him ad Tim had a talk about it,

Tried for a while to convince Tim to go to college because its something he wanted but feels its too late for him now,

Jane Austen books are his favorite, has multiple special edition versions of Pride and Prejudice,

He’s the guy that rants about how the book is better than the movie, even when his siblings didn’t ask,

Makes a lot of literary references and gets upset at his bros for not knowing them,

Still has nightmares about dying and being tortured, has a hard time sleeping,

Has the worst diet, but works out a lot to make up for it,

Jokes about his death to cope,

Pretends he hates Bruce when deep down he knows he still loves him and views him as a father, doesn't know how to forgive him or fix their relationship though,

Never slept with Starfire or any other bullshit that happened in RHATO,

Leo Sun, Taurus Moon, Scorpio Rising

Unironically likes Green Lantern more than Batman,

Tim Drake:

Asian-American

INTP

Black hair, brown eyes

Most intellectual of the Robins, lacks the most common sense also,

Is smarter than Bruce Wayne,

Listens to indie pop music that no ones heard of,

Extremely lonely, doesn’t open up much to people due to having neglectful parents,

Isn’t aware that he was neglected/emotional abused by his parents

Hates school, graduated high school early and doesn’t bother to try to go to college,

Finds it to be a waste of his time since he’s already doing what he wants to do,

Would be most fit to be Batman honestly,

Idolizes people in his life, such as Bruce, Dick, Kon, etc.

Gay, but didn’t realize till much later in his life.

Greatest fear is failure,

As CEO of Wayne Enterprise he did a lot to improve the quality of life for people in Gotham City, as well as redistributed a lot of Bruce’s wealth to the poorer districts.

When his father died, he shut down his business and used the money to make the city better.

Trains constantly to make sure he’s always ready and on top of his game,

Drinks coffee quite a bit, but not like how the fandom thinks he does,

Skates around the city while listening to lofi playlists to unwind,

Is still Red Robin, not Drake

His last name is Drake, period.

Is older than fucking 17, In my head, Tim is like 20 now,

Cancer Sun, Capricorn Moon, Libra Rising

Him and Steph are still best friends, gay/lesbian solidarity

Has a collection of Kon’s shirts that he is probably never going to give back,

Stephanie Brown:

Biracial

Has a untamable mane of curly blonde hair,

Lesbian

ENFP

Dated Tim cuz of comphet but now their best friends and brag about their significant other to each other

Meme Queen

Dating Cassie, they share an apartment together and despite the fact tha she has a key, Cassie usually enters through the window

Doesn’t trust people who hates purple

Misandrist

Doesn't like Bruce, but puts up with his since that’s her girlfriends dad,

One of best fighters since she gets lesson straight from the legend herself, Cassie Cain,

Gets along with Jason a lot and helps him to track down and beat up abusers

Doesn’t trust cops either,

Currently enrolled in college, wants to become a nurse so she can help people in a different way,

Atheist

Leo Sun, Cancer Moon, Libra Rising,

Really close with her mom,

I don't have any headcanons for Damian. I don't like him that much.

#this took me an hour to type up #yall better appreciate this #asks #can you tell Jason is my favorite?#i have a pinterest boards for them all and jason has the most pins

6 notes · View notes

truthofherdreams · 5 years

Text

24 Days of Dickkory-smas

2. Pretend boyfriend/girlfriend for family Christmas party (ao3)

“I need your help.”

Things never end up well when Dick pops his head into her cubicle with such words. Last time, they both almost got fired over one of his so-called brilliant ideas. Before that, she nearly flooded the staff bathroom to prove him wrong about something. Then there was that time they got locked out of the building at midnight with all their shit still inside and no mean to break in.

So, really, Kory should stop entertaining him. It’s assured to be a shit-show.

Which is why she sighs and turns toward him. Or, well, turns as much as she can while her feet are propped up on her desk and her keyboard is balanced on her stomach – what? She likes to be comfortable at work, okay! “What do you want this time?”

And thing is, Dick is half decent at his job when he feels like it. He’s also the most popular guy at work, with the majority of people-attracted-to-men lusting over his (arguably interesting) ass all day long. But Dick has about zero skills when it comes to socialising, and to relationships, and to basically acting like a normal human being. Which is funny as fuck most of the time.

Which also means he rambles. A lot.

“Well, see, my sister is organising a Christmas party this year after a few years of us not really gathering as a family – you know how it is, she travels a lot and Rachel isn’t always the best at family shit, and driving back to Gotham isn’t that practical to us. And, anyway, Donna is going all in this year, big dinner at her place with lots of people, food for days, even…”

“Dick,” she interrupts him. Puts him out of his misery, really. “To the point.”

He sighs, and frowns. Cute. Almost. “She was very sarcastic about it, all ‘Guess you don’t need a plus one?’ so, obviously, I had to argue back. And well, long story short, I told her we’re dating so, are you free next Monday evening because I need you to be my date?”

Her mouth has opened agape halfway through his speech, but it’s only once Dick is done that Kory actually starts laughing. And laughing. And laughing. Tears pearling at the corners of her eyes that she brushes away with a knuckles, even if her body is still shaking with silent giggles. Dick looks upset, quite obviously, but it’s hard to take him seriously when he apparently decided to re-enact a Hallmark movie, just because – well, because he’s a petty dude, apparently. Kory can almost relate to that.

“Are you out of your mind?” she asks with another peel of laughter. “Your kids know we’re not dating; they’ll snitch in a second.”

He looks… almost sheepish now, which is totally not what she’s used to when it comes to Dick. Like, yes, the guy is awkward as fuck when it comes to making small talk, but at least he has enough confidence about him that it almost looks like he knows what he’s doing at all times. Except now, apparently.

“That’s the thing, right. I told them, and they find it fucking hilarious. Even told me they want to see this shit happen, just to see me fail. I think there’s bets going on and all.”

Kory has met Dick’s kids a couple of times before. They’re both cute as buttons, even if they definitely give as good as they get when it comes to sass and wit. Definitely take after their foster father in that category. And, well, maybe it’s the sick part of Kory talking, but she kinda want to see that shit happen too. And she’d never say no to spending more time with Rachel and Gar, cause those kids are awesome.

Which is basically how she finds herself in Dick’s soccer mom van not even a week later, on her way to Donna Troy’s Detroit loft. Dick has been prepping her for days about this shit, so now she can only picture his sister as some kind of crazy helicopter sibling who believes vaccines are causing autism and everything is cured by essential oils. Why else would he put so much effort in this story, after all, if not because his sister is off her rockers?

Needless to say, ‘surprise’ barely covers how Kory feels when the door to the loft opens on a very beautiful, very put-together brunette. Donna grins from ear to ear at the sight of them, hugging the two teenagers first, then Dick. Despite knowing they are not blood-related, Kory can’t help but notice how much they look like each other – it’s the way they hold themselves perhaps, or how Dick’s rare smiles seem to mirror Donna’s.

“And you must be Kory,” Donna exclaims as she pulls Kory into a hug too. “I’d say I heard a lot about you, but this one never tells me anything.”

“Like you tell me everything about your girlfriends,” he replies, petulant.

Kory jumps in. “Girlfriend, singular.”

Donna is grinning even more now, and Dick throws her a surprised smile before he checks himself and pulls an arm around her waist. It’s stiff and awkward, and he’s obviously not used to acting like that, but muscle memory is a beautiful thing to Kory. It only takes her a few moments to relax, leaning into him just enough that soon his arm doesn’t feel so uncomfortable around her or his body so tense against her side.

“You’re doing great,” she whispers to him as they make their way instead.

“Shut up.”

Donna’s Christmas dinner is less of a family matter than a quick get-together with friends, and Kory is soon introduced to many people who all seem to more or less know Dick and whose names she forgets the moment they move on to another conversation.

Thankfully, both for Dick’s social anxieties levels and for Kory’s boredom levels, Dawn and Hank are quick to arrive too, and stay by their sides all through the evening. Kory does enjoy Dawn’s company – so peaceful and quiet, her voice soothing even when she tells a particularly funny joke – and is glad to see at least two familiar faces. It doesn’t take long until a biracial guy, who introduces himself to her as Wally West, joins them in their corner of the loft.

And it’s so interesting, seeing Dick outside of work. Yes, there’s been the odd night out at a bar here and there with their colleagues, and that one dreadful picnic their boss all forced them to attend. But it really is something else to see him surrounded by friends who’ve known him for quite some time now – he’s more relaxed than she’s ever seen him, more at ease. He’s smiling a whole lot more too, and perhaps Kory is starting to understand why everyone and their brother has a crush on him.

“You all look like a Benetton advert and a half,” Donna jokes as she walks toward them, beer in hand. “Kory, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Dick shares a meaningful glance with her – of course they were expecting Donna to go all big sister on her ass tonight – but Kory rolls her eyes at him before she stands up. He has nothing to worry about; they did make up a believable story and she does know how to lie flawlessly.

Donna asks her to help with the cheese cubes or some other bullshit, just the two of them in the empty and quiet kitchen, so Kory isn’t fooled. This is less of a nice chat and more of an interrogation, at this point.

“It’s nice that you could come tonight,” is how Donna decides to start the conversation as she takes some stuff out of the fridge. “I haven’t seen Dick that happy in a while.”

Well, he did promise Kory he would do all her annoying paperwork for two months if she agreed to this so – sure, he must be thrilled. “Thanks? I guess.”

They do set up to cut some cheese and put it into bowls, which proves more arduous than Kory had anticipated, what with her nail extensions and all. She’d rather not take an emergency appointment at the salon between Christmas and New Year, thank you very much.

“Don’t tell him I said that, but I worried about him. Between his jobs and the kids, I think he often forgets to just – live, you know? It’s good that he found someone.” Donna smiles at her, and it’s soft and loving. Not for the first time, Kory aches for her own family, halfway across the world. “Especially with the way he talks about you.”

Her eyes widen, just a bit. “He talks about me?”

“Oh, girl, I was only fucking with him earlier. It’s been going on for months now, every time I manage to have him on the phone. Always complaining about how your bonuses are bigger than his and how your boss likes you better, and Kory this, and Kory that. It seriously only was a matter of time before he realised how bad he had it for you.”

Kory finds herself grateful for her dark skin – it definitely helps hiding the blush on her cheeks and how warm her entire face feels all of a sudden. She has a hard time believing Dick would just rant about her to his sister if given the chance, even more so than she has a hard time believing siblings actually still call each other to gossip in 2018. But it’s – cute, almost? Definitely heart-warming. The thought of Dick complaining to Donna about her, over and over again, until it became A Thing, capital letters and all, doesn’t fail to make her smile.

“But seriously though,” Donna goes on as she gathers a bunch of cheese cubes before dumping them into a bowl, “not to be all ‘if you hurt him, I’ll hurt you’ about it but – he’s seen some fucking shit in his life. And I know he can be a pain about, well, basically everything but… be nice to him, okay? Cause I’m strong enough to break a few of your perfectly manicured fingers.”

Kory can’t help but smile at that, even though Donna is dead serious about it. It’s comforting, in a way, that someone is as protective of him as Dick is of his kids, that someone cares about him just enough to make threats about his happiness. It makes Kory long for something long forgotten, left behind in a country she no long calls home.

“Whatever she’s saying, she’s lying,” comes from behind them, the two of them turning around to find Dick standing in the doorway. He looks between her and Donna, before his eyes stop on Kory. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, we’re done. Thanks for the help, Kory.”

Donna grabs both bowls before she walks away, leaving them alone in the kitchen. Dick lets her go, before he moves closer to Kory. She pretends to focus on plucking bits of cheese from under her nails, just so she won’t have to meet his eyes; she doesn’t know if she’s quite able of such a thing right now, not when Donna’s words still ring in her ears.

“Seriously, though. You okay?”

He’s right in front of her now, hand curling around her elbow. Kory has no choice but to look at him, and witness the flash of worry in his eyes as he takes her all in. She feels stupid and childish – like a school girl who suddenly realised that the boy was pulling at her pigtails for months because he actually likes likes her. And she doesn’t know how to react, because maybe she was replying in kind all this time to hide the fact that she likes likes him too. What a concept.

“What are you doing next week?”

He frowns, just a little. “Next week is New Year’s Eve.”

“Yes.” Genius.

Dick frowns some more, looking into her eyes for – something. She doesn’t know what, exactly, but it makes her stomach fluttery all of a sudden with the way he takes a step closer, fingers tightening around her elbow. He’s so close she can see the specks of gold in his eyes, so close her red hair brushes against his face.

And he’s smiling now, one of those real but rare smiles. “Spending the evening with you?”

She might be smiling, too. “Good answer.”

#dickkory #titans #koriand'r #dick grayson #fanfic #ff: titans #ff: 24 days of dickkorysmas

100 notes · View notes

daadzi · 6 years

Text

--It’s Munday. This has been sitting in my drafts for too long. Might as well do it now:

A. age: 24 B. birthplace: New Orleans C. current time: Irrelevant D. drink you had last: alcoholic coffee E. easiest person(s) to talk to: @jujika, @pirate-queen-rouge, there’s others too, but i’m tipsy F. favorite song: Elastic Heart -- Sia H. horror yes or horror no: horror hELL YES I. in love? yes, with @elastixheart J. jealous of people: very much so K. killed someone: who asks that? L. love at first sight or should i walk by again? I didn’t used to think that, then I saw @elastixheart in a comic shop one day & was immediately smitten M. middle name(s): forbidden info, n/a N. number of siblings: i don’t even know at this point O. one wish: when will mental stability return from the war Q. question you’re always asked: “you’re not really an Indian right?” (i’m biracial...) R. reason(s) to smile: my roommates, writing partners, horses, work team S. song you sang last: I will always think of you (x) T. top 3 fictional characters: Ace ofc, Wally West (DC comics), Shizuo Heiwajima (Durarara) U. underwear & color: skip V. vacation: caribbean-esque, good internet access included W. when’s your birthday: May 6th X. x - rays: no & no doctors eiter Y. your favorite food: hnnnngggh love me some crawfish Z. zodiac sign: taurus...???

tagging: this meme’s been dead for too long, so-- whoever wants to, at this point. If you’re reading, tag- you’re it.

#the orca in charge;; OOC

1 note · View note

dawnofspeed · 6 years

Text

ok this is gonna be a sort of mini rant/feels thing so just bear with me.

so i went through the tornado twins tag, and there’s a lot of great things in there. wayyyy more than there used to be bc the show has gained traction, and westallen is all the rage and then barry mentioned the ‘we need more diapers’ line in new season, which added to previous foreshadowing everyone believes THE TWINS ARE COMING or a baby is at any rate. and while that’s great, and i love the excitement, heck i’m excited and i love that it renews interest in dawn and don, there’s something that’s troubling me. i’m worried guys, and here’s why.

dawn and don have always kind of been a footnote in the comics, besides from providing the odd storyline for wally west angst and for giving the grandkids from the future, bart and jenni, the twins kinda sorta basically didn’t exist. but there’s still a discrepency between who kinda sorta got more erasure than the other- dawn.

dawn in the comics had the first interracial relationship and she had a daughter. compared to don who appeared way more ‘traditional’ and had a son. in fact, his relationship was way more fleshed out and he got way more references than dawn ever did, possibly also because bart got way more attention than jenni. not to mention, his love interest, meloni thawne appeared quite a few times after don’s death (and retconned deaths). don’t get me wrong, i love meloni and i love bart but doesn’t it come off, well... BAD that the women characters and the mixed race fam had significantly less development and ‘screen time’ than the straight laced boys club?

which brings me back to the dc and cw problems at hand. i’ve been kinda vocal for a while now about a few shows- dc’s animated stuff has come up a lot. i’m a massive fan of both young justice and their superhero girls programs. in fact, yj was one of the first things that moved me over to dc. before that i was pretty marvel based. and bart’s appearance on the show is awesome. but... it does piss me off too. because bart had already had a tv show appearance- smallville. and the cartoon already had a male speedster boy- kid flash. jenni had just as much right to be there, and ties to barry. and i get from a commercial standpoint- bart has a huge fanbase and the show was trying to appeal more and more to boys. but it would have meant so much to have a biracial speedster girl on that show. then you go to superhero girls... THE NAME OF THE SHOW is superhero GIRLS. the only speedster making an appearance? barry. an older guy. dawn would have been easy to introduce in this alternate universe where harley quinn and poison ivy hang out with batgirl and supergirl. barry’s speedster daughter who is learning to use her powers and wants guidance from older more experienced girl role models? like?

so now we go back to cw. and we have fans calling on the show to introduce bart. skip the twins altogether. some people calling for the twins to be replaced with a son called bart. other people suggesting that there will still be twins, but called bart and nora but nora will stay to help iris deal with some problem in the future and bart will go back in time and get stuck.

don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with speculation and a lot of people are very articulate. i mean there are some who have whitewashed bart and don in castings (not kidding, someone suggested a white guy for don but a biracial girl for dawn, that was weird.) but here’s why some of this bothers me and why i’m imploring people to think about what they’re posting about the twins and how we want the cw, and the show’s creative team, to look at what we say about this. as someone who just got their degree in film, and had to FIGHT HARD even in SMALL productions to get people of color and their stories made we have a huge thing in iris west, and the west family, being black now. and a biracial family at the centre of a superhero show. not only that, women of color at the centre of a superhero show. but if we go the way of the comics and past adaptations, as much as we loved them, those women will be cast aside. disappear. get no screen time or mention. and we might also get some heavy whitewashing.

so please, PLEASE, do not advocate for bart to be the next key core member. as much as you love him. or, if you do, implore for jenni to be there too. cousins in hand, front and centre. girl speedster RIGHT THERE IN YOUR FACE. implore for dawn and don to be equally present in their parents lives. ask for dawn to be in on that adventure as much as her brother (or nora, or whatever you want their daughter to be called). i worked at a kids care centre for three years and girls were always being teased for their superhero interests, until superhero girls came out, and supergirl and wonder woman. we want our girls of color to believe they can be that special speedster kid as much as any boy. especially when the flash is finally getting to a good place of including women in their show, even if they still use a slur for one of them.

#long post for ts #long post #tornado twins #dawn allen #don allen #... i'm probably gonna get backlash for this but it's important you guys #as much as you love some characters there needs to be changes #there needs to be more inclusion #women matter. girls matter. people of color matter. BOTH IN ONE PERSON IS HARD.

21 notes · View notes

metissagesanguemisto · 4 years

Photo

Cuffy the Negro’s Doggerel Description of the Progress of Sugar, leaf 2.

**llustrating the Enslaved in The Progress of Sugar **

Nowdays the word “progress” usually means “growth, development, usually to a better state or condition; improvement,” rather than “advancement through a process, a sequence of events, a period of time, etc.” In early nineteenth-century British children’s books, “progress” also can refer to a sub-genre of illustrated non-fiction that explains the necessary steps to make something useful from a kind of raw material–for example, the progress of wheat, the progress of bread, etc. When the product was sugar, the subject was politically charged, because it was impossible to describe how sugar cane was grown, harvested, and processed without reference to the underlying economy of human trafficking.

Amelia Opie’s “The Black Man’s Lament ” has two speakers, the British abolitionist poet who exposes the white man’s crime by allowing a black enslaved man to describe the how his people suffer so “civilized” people can enjoy sugar with their tea. The poet’s tribute to the sight of a sugar-cane field in bloom is quickly forgotten as the enslaved man takes the reader through the process step by step. The second step is the breaking up of families through forcible removal of people from their native lands. The third step is packing their bodies like bales of cotton into a frigate’s hold. The sixth step is selling the unlucky survivors of the ocean voyage to white planters, looking for more workers in the sugar cane fields. Steps seven through fourteen show the sequence of jobs that must be performed until the mature canes can be harvested. The last steps show how the sugar cane is made into sugar crystals, which can be packed in barrels for shipping to England.

Amelia Opie, The Black Man’s Lament: or How to Make Sugar. (London: Harvey and Darton, 1826), p. 6. Cotsen 15245.

Amelia Opie, “The Black Man’s Lament,” p. 8. Two planters inspecting a man for possible purchase. Notice the drivers with whips in the far right and background.

Opie, “The Black Man’s Lament,” p. 16. This is the only scene in the fields where the overseer is not watching the black man like a hawk.

The Rev. Isaac Taylor’s Scenes in Africa, one in a series to remedy British children’s ignorance of cultural geography, is not a progress poem, but its more ambivalent representation of slave trading contrasts with Opie’s more coherent one. Taylor’s volume about Africa consists of eighty-four short descriptive sections with illustrations on engraved plates. Section 24 “A son going to sell his Father and Mother into Slavery” begins with this surprising statement: “We must just take a peep at the miseries of these people on account of the prevalence of the slave-trade; we might trace the cause deeper, to an immoderate love of brandy.” Sections 34 to 36 describe how petty chiefs will stoop to making false criminal judgments, waging war, and setting huts in adjoining villages on fire to procure bodies to exchange for iron, fabric and brandy. Near the end of the volume, Taylor retells the episode from the travels of James Bruce where he met the queens of Sennar and was repulsed by the way the fat women were dressed and adorned (or in his view deformed) with the huge rings in their ears and lips. Taylor may be able to express humanity for black people in general because Europeans or their own people prey upon them, but finds the reported behavior and appearance of individual groups disgusting.

A son dragging his parents off to sell for brandy in Rev. Isaac Taylor Senior, Scenes in Africa, 2nd ed. (London: J. Harris and Son, 1821) engraving 24. Cotsen 2898

Rev. Isaac Taylor Senior, Scenes in Africa, 2nd. ed. engraving number 35. Cotsen 2898. This is almost certainly copied from one of the famous large engravings of the hold of a slave ship; however this one is so small that it was not possible to show the outlines of the people’s bodies in any detail.

The queens of Sennar in Rev. Isaac Taylor Senior, Scenes in Africa, 2nd ed., engraving 72. Cotsen 2898.

Cuffy the Negro’s Doggerel Description of the Progress of Sugar extends the process by adding the steps that take place after the sugar crosses the Atlantic, unloaded in England, and further processed. One pair of illustrations compare and contrast workers in the West Indies and the other in Great Britain. On the plantation, two barefoot, bare-chested black men tend the great copper vats under the overseer’s supervision. In the middle distance, one adds lime to thicken the boiling sugar cane syrup, while the other in the foreground ladles the now ropy liquid onto a plate to harden. The second illustration shows a sugar baker, neatly dressed in a hat, shirt, apron over knee breeches, stockings and shoes. According to Cuffy the narrator, the sugar baker is spooning blood and some other adulterant to whiten the sugar loaves hardening in the molds. Equally compelling is the portrait of Cuffy at the head of the doggerel poem imploring little readers to think of the “poor Negro” whose labor tending the sugar cane in the fields results in luscious pies, puddings, sweetmeats, cakes, and lollypops. The wood engraved depiction of the black man shivering in the cold contains details that are not easy to interpret. Cuffy is holding a red Phrygian hat and wearing torn striped trousers–garments associated with the sans culottes of the French Revolution. Was the artist of this wood engraving covertly expressing support for the West Indian slave rebellions during in the early 1800s?

Cuffy the Negro’s Doggerel Description of the Progress of Sugar (London: E. Wallis, ca. 1823), p. 11. Cotsen 26162.

Cuffy the Negro’s Doggerel Description of the Progress of Sugar, leaf 15. Cotsen 26162.

This interpretation of the image seems untenable at first, but the short story “Clarissa Dormer, or the Advantages of Good Instruction” (1806) depicts such an uprising as justifiable, but avoidable if white people take seriously their duty to enslaved peoples. This view strikes us as condescending now, but to express it then in a story for rather young children was radical, even extraordinary. Clarissa Dormer is the daughter of native West Indian planters, who are described as “black enough to be esteemed descendants of those unhappy beings whom perfidy or avarice brought into the hands of Europeans, nor yet so fair as to pass for natives of our temperate climes.” To give Clarissa every possible advantage, her parents hire an English governess to educate her. The chief obstacle to Miss Melville’s program of enlightened instruction is Mrs. Dormer, an ignorant, showy woman, who is remarkably cruel to the enslaved peoples working in her household and on the plantation. So cruel that when the “ill-used” Dormer slaves rise up one night, their mistress is brutally murdered along with the overseen and whipper-in. Miss Melville and Clarissa, who has learned humanity from her in spite of her mother’s atrocious example, are spared by those DISCRIMINATING SLAVES” who…deemed them worthy of their clemency at a time when they came to execute vengeance on an individual under the same roof.”

Mrs. Dormer orders the slave Dinah, who, Clarissa falsely accused of lying, to be beaten until hunks of flesh come off her back. Miss Melville tries to stop her, but without success. Clarissa Dormer; or The Advantages of a Good Education (London: J. Harris, 1806) plate 2. Cotsen 26219.

Dinah pleads for the lives of Miss Melville and Clarissa the night the slaves rebel. Clarissa Dormer, plate 3. Cotsen 26129.

These four works demonstrate what rich sources children’s books can be in documenting early nineteenth-century attitudes about the institution of slavery.

Source: https://blogs.princeton.edu/cotsen/tag/biracial-people/

Posted in 19th century, British children's books | Tagged Africans, Amelia Opie, Biracial people, Black Man's Lament, Clarissa Dormer or the Advantages of Good Instruction, Cuffy the Negro's Doggerel Description of the Progress of Sugar, English governesses, Enslaved people, Progress of Sugar, Rev. Isaac Taylor Senior, Scenes in Africa, Slave rebellions, Slaves, Sugar cane, West Indians

#19th century #british children's book #children's books #africans #slaves #slavery #biracial people #cuffy the negro's doggerel description of the progress of sugar #enslaved people #progress of sugar #slaves rebellions #history #black history

0 notes

hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 7 years

Link

Strap in as I dissect this one.

I'm gonna be brutal here...Miles is a charcter with some merit and a lot of potential but his merit stems from the fact that relatively speaking he's been portrayed in a way that doesn't do a bad job capturing the feelings of a young biracial poc in modern day NYC and his relationship to his identity as a POC.

I think there are much better examples out there and there have been times where you could at least argue Miles has dropped the ball.

But overall it is Miles' greatest strength as a character.

In other aspects though....not so much.

Because as much credit as you can Miles in regards to handling race and identity...his personality outside of that, his career as a superhero and his general status quo are laughably bad.

Miles suffers from the exact same problems most of Bendis' characters suffer from (including the Ultimate versions of Peter Parker and the other Spider-Man chaacters).

That is to say he is mostly bland as bread but he is handed praise simply because Bendis is associated with him. In a similar (but not as largescale) a way Stan Lee is revered because he pioneered a new way of doing comics Bendis' name automatically makes readers and observers praise his work because when his comics career began at Marvel he pioneered a brand new way or writing comics.

Problem is a lot of the time in pop culture people confuse novelty with quality.

Because Bendis and Stan Lee both, from a creative writing point of view, tended to miss way more than they hit.

Oh sure Bendis' Daredevil and Alias runs in most respects deserve the acclaim they get as does Stan Lee's Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four runs.

But if you bother to really read most of Stan's OTHER Silver Age work...it's a billion miles away from those runs. Stan's Avengers, Iron Man and Thor stories are NOT stories that come anywhere close to the brilliance of his ASM and F4 work. They have great concepts behind them for sure but they are NOT executed very well.

And yet ALL of Stan's Silver Age work is held up in reverence.

The same holds true for the majority of Bendis' work. Most of it is garbage but is revered because he pioneered a new way of doing comics and readers of the early 2000s mistook the novelty of his work for genuine quality writing.

I mean when you honestly think about it for 2 seconds the decompression style he employs is financially and creatively toxic because it literally means readers need to spend more money to get ONE complete story and the pacing of it is destroyed. Reading in trades might be satisfying but the month-to-month sales get fucked in the ass.*

But people don't see that. They see decompression and they think it's goo because bendis does it and Bendis is the best writer around right so that must mean the way he writes is he best way to right.

Except it isn't.

Because Bendis is the guy who on Ultimate Spider-Man tookt he character of Peter Parker who's whole point is that he's the every man superhero motivated by the death of his Uncle ben and decided that his biological Dad Richard parker should be like massively important to the ongoing narrative along with his pseudo father figure Nick Fury the head of the super duper secret spy organization that runs the world. And then on top of that decided that instead of having J. Jonah Jameson be you know...an important character like he has been in....oh yeah EVERY iteration of Spider-Man's story he'd rather Jameson be rarely seen or heard from.

That's not even getting into what he did to the villains. Using just one example Ultimate Venom is objectively speaking a worse version of Venom than the 616 iteration of the character.

At his worst 1990s Venom was an over the top caricature embodying everything wong with the 1990s. He was a mindlessly violent grimdark anti-hero complete with a slavering tongue and idiotic catch phrase (I'll eat your brains!).

It was godaweful personality for the character....but at least it WAS a personality.

Ultimate Venom had ZERO personality. He was nothing more than a gnarling, gnashing mass of goop, teeth and tentacles. Which is NOT what Venom is supposed to be. Venom s supposed to be a evil version of Spider-Man. He's supposed to look like a warped image of Spider-Man and have all his powers, except he doesn't in this version.

When you look at the entire point of that character and of the Ultimate version of Spider-Man overall it was a colossal failure from everything other than a financial point of view. It's job was to do a modernized and more realistic take on Spider-Man but it failed because it fucked up the fundamental points of Spider-Man's story and characters.

But people PRAISED that which underscores my point. People praise Bendis' work because it's Bendis regardless of the quality of the content.

Miles is no different except he ALSO gets handed automatic praise because he provides representation for marginalized people again regardless of the quality of the character. This isn't unique to him because the SAME thing occurs with Riri Williams who is aggressively poorly developed from a characterization POV. I mean for goodness sake we're talking about a character who doesn't seem to care about her Dad dying to the same degree she cares about her BFF. Like...what the fuck. We're talking about a character who asks her teacher to marginalise her.

And despite that, she's praised by the comic book press in general.

Because they aren't bothering to look too deeply at her personality or her characterization or her development or any of the important shit that goes into evaluating writing. They just see a black woman in the role of a prominent white male superhero and that's all that matters.

Which is exactly how the author of this article looked at Peter Parker and MIles Morales.

Peter and Miles aren't people. They aren't characters.

Those aren't the most important things.

The most important things are that one is a white person and the other is a poc.

That is the primary capacity in which their characters and their very identities are to be viewed. That's the 'right' way to view them.

Except it's not and doing so is immeasurably stupid and in fact harmful to the cause of equality.

Saying ANY given instance where a black person or a person of colour is deferring towards a white person in the way Miles does is equitable with racism is as fucking stupid as saying Boys from the Hood is prejudiced towards white people because there are very few of them in the movie.

It divorces fucking CONTEXT.

So let's look at the scene from an in and out of universe perspective with the context applied shall we?

If you bother to read up on Miles Morales goddam history you'll KNOW he has routinely defined himself in contrast to older more established heroes, trying to live up to their legends. You could even argue it's part of the core concept of Miles Morales so having Miles state Peter is the real deal Spider-Man is not just 100% in character but not doing that in this context could be argued as being the height of dishonesty for his character.

It's like complaining that Spider-Man felt guilty over Aunt May's illness in this storyline. Him NOT feeling that way would be bad writing. Because of his established characterization he is OBLIGED to react that way.

But that's an in-universe thing.

Out of universe this is saying Miles lives in Peter's shadow and Peter is the one true Spider-Man.

Yeah.

That's 100% accurate. And to explain why we need to do a little history lesson on the very foundation of the Marvel universe.

Once upon a time in the late 1930s Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster invented the first ever superhero, Superman. The hook for the character was that he was a guy with powers beyond those of ordinary men and used them to fight crime and save people. it was a hit and soon shittons of other characters were created with every name, costume and super power gimmick you could think of being canvassed.

Times changed though and supeheroes fell out of fashion and most of those characters disappeared. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman however hung around because they were the most popular. Why were they the most popular?

Simple, of all of the various characetrs created they were the ones with the most substance to them relative to everyone else. Every other superhero more or less was a costume and a set of powers and a flashy name and little more than that. Batman had a compelling origin story and gharish supervillains. Superman was the ultimate embodiment of childhood wish fulfillment and Wonder Woman was the definitive female power fantasy.

In contrast the Flash and Green lantern were about a due who was fast and a dude who had a ring that made glowing green shapes. Riveting.

These characetrs were so unimportant that DC comics in the 1950s revived them by basically creating all new characters to replace them. And so we got Barry Allan and Hal Jordan amongst others.

And it was fine because nobody gave a shit about the old Flash and Green Lantern because again...they were superficial. So long as someone could run fast and had a green ring they were good enough. The superficial aspects of both superhero identities was actually so foundational to them that they were replaced AGAIN by Wally West and Kyle Rayner. Because again, the Flash was about a guy who was fast and GL was about a guy with a green ring. That was the POINT of them.

But in the 1960s some guys called Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko (along with others) struck upon the idea that....maybe they should NOT make superheroes who's main hooks were their flash names, costumes and powers.

MAYBE instead of their powers the point of these characters should be their personalities, their relationships, their personal lives in general and the struggles they face day to day like most of us.

Spider-Man wasn't the first experiment with this idea but he was the most successful.

The point of Spider-Man is objectively NOT that there is a guy called Spider-Man, with web spandex and spider powers running around fighting crime.

The POINT is the life story of Peter Parker. The point and the thing that made Spider-Man popular was Peter Parker's SPECIFIC personality. His SPECIFIC relationships with his SPECIFIC friends, family and colleagues. His SPECIFIC jobs. His SPECIFIC life stauts quo in general.

It wasn't the case that ANY given character with ANY given set of friends or personality could've been plugged into that role and would've been as successful because if that was true Daredevil and multiple other Marvel characters would've been as successful too.

Hell NOVA, Speedball and other characters who were deliberate attempts to be the Peter Parkers of their generations never came close to that level of success.

Because the entire CONCEPT and APPEAL of Spider-Man is rooted SPECIFICALLY in Peter Parker.

Now with all of that said let's look at MIles?

Is his personality as vibrant and fleshed out as Peter's? No, he's bland and talked up as 'just a good kid' which is to say he lacks flaws in his personality (which was you know, part and parcel of the entire fucking POINT of all the Marvel characters)

Does he have a compelling motivation and concept powering him such as the guilt and sense of responsibility stemming from his Uncle's death which he blames himself for? No, not anymore. His core concept was that he was the legacy Spider-Man who picked up Peter's role when he died, something Miles feels he could have prevented. Now though that version of Peter came back to life and MIles is in a universe where Peter Parker is alive, has never died, is still active and Miles merely co-exists with him rather than adopts his role and tries to live up to the legend of a fallen hero.

Is his powerset a fine balance of making him a formidable fighter but also far from invincible? No, he can literally win any given fight by turning invisible, sneaking up on someone with his wall crawling powers and spider sense and electrocuting them. And we know it'll work because apparently his electorcution powers are strong enough to knock out Blackheart who is literally evil incarnate and the son of the Devil...and Electro who's entire body is a living electical battery. Miles Morales has plot convenience powers up the wazoo. And if somehow none of those things do the trick it's okay...because he can like make his body explode with electricity and blast everything in his path. And on top of that (if you read the arc where Ultimate Peter Parker returns) Miles can ALSO come back from the dead. That is literally one of his powers. My...how relatable?

Does he struggle with balancing the responsibilites of life alongside the responsibility of being Spider-Man, including the immense burden of guilt, supporting his chronically ill mother, dealing with serious grief, having shit from his peers and the general public mistrusting him which makes earning money extremeley hard? No. In every way other than the fact that he must deal with the immense burden of institutionalized racism Miles' life is 100% better and easier than Peter Parker's. And he has people who can at least support him and help him through personal crises he endures. Peter for the longest time was entirely alone and had to deal with all the stuff you see in this issue and more. THAT is what FORGED him into the hero we know and love today.

He endured all this crap in his life but wasn't destroyed by it, in fact he rose above it and helped people.

THAT is what made him connect with millions of people across the world generation after generation since 1962.

So when Miles in the story, and Bendis through MIles outside of the story says Miles lives in Peter's shadow and Peter is the real deal he's 100% right.

Miles can be the best Miles Morales Spider-Man ever.

But he is NOT the measure of Peter Parker either as a hero in universe or as a character outside of it.

Because Spider-Man was never a name, a set of spandex and spider super powers.

Spider-Man WAS Peter Parker and his life.

To be Spider-Man is to be Peter Parker.

It isn't a mantle to be passed down like Cap's shield or Batman's cowl.

Spider-Man isn't a symbol or a mantle or a legend.

Spider-man is a specific person called Peter Parker and the life he leads.

So no.

It's not 'racist' for Miles or Bendis to acknowledge that or Miles place as NOT being ont he same level as Peter int he role of Spider-Man.

Because it's the truth.

*Bendis' USM work managed to survive that only because

a) It's Spider-Man, Spider-Man automatically guarantees certain baseline sales no matter what

b) At the time that deompression style had the novelty factor going for it

c) Early 2000s Spider-Man was in a state of collapse. Basically until JMS' run began it was bleeding readers badly so any vaguely decent Spider-Man felt like an oasis in a desert, even if the water wasn't exactly clean

e) Mark Bagley's art. Bags is a master artists at the best of times but more importantly his rendition of Spider-Man had been the definitive version used on most merchandise throughout the 1990s, even influencing the highly influencial 1990s cartoon that was back then very recent in people's minds. I mean is it any wonder the quality and sales dropped once Bagley left? If it was all about the writing then it wouldn't have mattered much but it 100% did

f) It was remaking old concepts. At the time that was a new thing so the idea of seeing a moderization of Spider-Man's origin or of the origin of Venom or of Spider-Man first working at the Bugle seemed enticing to readers

g) Whatever you say about Bendis as writer because he was the lone author of USM and because USM the one and only main book for that version of Spider-Man there was a consistency lent to the work that wasn't alienating people and it was easy to catch up because you just needed to follow from issue #1 then issue #2 etc. the same applies for the trades. Much like Japanese Manga USM regardless of the quality of the content was very accessible because you could just start at the beginning and gradually catch up without having to figure out that you needed to read this mini-seires over here or that crossover over there and then in your head explain any contradictions that cropped up because of it.

16 notes · View notes

bigskydreaming · 7 years

Note

what would you change about green lantern? i'm not really good on the specifics but i've seen you talk about Kyle ranner before so i'm assuming you're into that.

Listen, Kyle Rayner is probably my favorite character of all time, Scott McCall in large part appealed to me right off the bat because he basically was a teenage version of Kyle Rayner. So that being said, things I would change about Green Lantern are completely and one hundred percent said with bias....my apologies to Hal Jordan fans I promise I am capable of nuance I’m just not gonna demonstrate it here and my stanny Stan who Stans clown shoes are firmly affixed to my feet for the duration of this post.

1) Screw Hal Jordan, put Kyle back as the focal center point of the Green Lantern mythos instead of just paying lip service to how important he is while like....trotting him out to be used in one major story every couple years.

2) Give us an adaptation of Kyle finally, like this would be soooooo easy to do, his story and character arc is so epic and big screen appropriate and he’d work so well in DC’s various animated adaptations, particularly Young Justice. (I know there was kinda a version of Kyle Rayner in a couple episodes of the 90s Superman cartoon but like....I dont count that. That was Kyle in name only).

3) I would’ve changed it so they made Kyle clearly bi racial from the start and addressed the confusion many writers and artists have to this day about Kyle being mixed white/latino. Basically he was coded as being not-white from the start, but it took a retcon by a later writer to clarify that his father was Mexican-American and he’s biracial, and that created a lot of confusion over the years.

4) I would have his stories be written by more writers of color. Kyle has always been an extremely topical character, and during the decade long run of his solo series, a lot of his stories revolved around a lot of progressive issues and things like racial tensions, hate crimes, homophobia, etc. Problem is, Kyle has mostly been written by white writers, so a lot of those stories, while written with good intentions, have just been.....Bad.

5) They should have not killed Alex DeWitt, his girlfriend at the time he first became a Green Lantern. That was their first mistake, their biggest mistake, and it remains the single biggest stain on Kyle’s story as a whole because a) Alex was fucking awesome and deserved better and she could have been just as great and iconic as Lois Lane and Iris West if she’d been given the time and focus they had and b) his story didn’t fucking need that angle and it only weighed him down and made him yet another hero with a love interest killed for the sake of his manpain and eww unnecessary.

6) Yeah I’m cheating here but whatever Kyle gets six things I’d change because Kyle is bisexual as hell and should absolutely be with Connor Hawke as well as having a complicated and messy relationship history with Dick Grayson that is the subject of much gossip and speculation among the superhero community but also I would accept a Kyle joining Wally and Linda for a polyamorous triangle as well, look Kyle is bisexual there are so many people he could be bisexual with why won’t DC make Kyle bisexual *takes deep breath and shakes fist mightily*

11 notes · View notes