#Racism Essays

[januscorner]

Just realized I can post this. Please watch the ones about social issues omg

#The Harry Potter Ones Are About How Much It Sucks And The “Can You Tell If A Disabled Person Is Faking” One Is About How Bad Fake Claiming I #The Owl House #Neurodivergent Essays #Gravity Falls #Queer Essays #Racism Essays #Fandom Essays #wandavision #Musical essays #Disability essays #Hamilton #Six #Music essays #Cats #Leftist essays #Fashion essays #Warrior cats essays #Cartoon essays #Janus’s Corner

[1tbls]

some rambling thoughts on shivers (red bolding mine throughout):

so shivers says this to harry after he has a dance-induced seizure in the church, right:

YOU - But who am *I*? Why are you talking to me?

SHIVERS - YOU ARE AN OFFICER OF THE CITIZENS MILITIA. *AGENTES IN REBUS*, WHEN YOU WEAR YOUR COAT, YOU WEAR MY SOUL.

SHIVERS - YOU MOVE THROUGH MY STREETS FREELY IN MOTOR CARRIAGES AND ON FOOT. YOU HAVE ACCESS TO THE HIDDEN PLACES. YOU ALSO CIRCULATE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE HIDDEN.

here's wikipedia on "agentes in rebus":

"The agentes in rebus were the late Roman imperial and Byzantine courier service and general agents of the central government from the 4th to the 7th centuries."

"Being outside the control of the provincial governors, some agentes ... were appointed as inspectors ... for which they gained a reputation as a secret police force. As their routine assignments brought them into contact with matters of great concern to the court, and as they reported back to the court on everything they saw or heard on their varied missions, the agentes can be seen to have had an intelligence function ... This role, as well as their extraordinary power, made them feared: the 4th-century philosopher Libanius accused them of gross misconduct, terrorizing and extorting the provincials, "sheep-dogs who had joined the wolf pack". Nevertheless, the vast majority operated quite openly, and the claims of the agentes operating as a modern-day secret police are certainly exaggerated."

hey shivers. why are you invoking the RCM as your secret police, via a term not just associated with collection of information, but with corruption and manipulation of power.

and, if you fuck up the dance check and call kim a slur, she says:

"SHIVERS - BY THE WAY, APOLOGIZE TO YOUR PARTNER AT ONCE. UNITY AMONG THE RANKS IS PARAMOUNT."

which sticks out to me, because earlier we have this encyclopedia check with noid:

NOID - "A life is true if it's free from fear and internal division among oneself. And others -- mankind has seeds of greatness in it. A germinal will come, a return to trueness. It will be hard core."

YOU - "How would you go about *returning* to this true life?"

NOID - "Beats and bright lights to shatter falsehoods. Nerve impulses for the collective body. We are very much alike in basic structure. A hard enough beat would awaken everyone to a truer calling -- in unity!"

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Rejection of the right-left axis, emphasis on *unity*, appreciation of some primordial mode of being -- what does that remind you of?

YOU - "Sort of like fascism then?"

now, i don't think either noid or shivers are outright fascist :p but i do think the purpose of this encyclopedia line is to highlight how those criteria are flawed and damaging, how they are red flags, whatever the intention.

some comparisons:

1. return to trueness. le retour. the return of... what? in both cases, truly quite vague except for the idea of some dramatic upheaval of the current order, the idea of "returning" to some idealized past state or event.

2. nerve impulses. shivers. "appeal to nature" type fallacy, appeal to a baser instinct... invocation of physical reactions as metaphor for political reactionism, perhaps?

3. unity. on the surface, shivers telling harry to make things right with kim is touching, certainly. but specifically "unity among the ranks" is an interesting framing 🤨 as though the crucial thing is that their forces are not divided for what's to come, regardless of kim's feelings, regardless of harry's potential racism.

likewise, noid's call for unity addresses... nothing at all. simply that everyone would be awoken from their petty, false divisions into unity. neither this nor his criticisms of left vs. right acknowledge that the division is not equal, that one side in most social power conflicts is invested in stripping the rights of the other... because that is simply not on the radar when the priority is unity above all else. in its way, unity is authoritarian where it does not abide difference or dissent in the interest of the of the stasis/power of the institution.

this is all to say. hey. let's talk about the inherent nationalist nature of la revacholiere, my problematic wife ♥️

#de tag #disco elysium #i feel like i could make this more coherent / essay-like but i just cant be bothered #im certain there's other shivers lines like this that had me like <__< girl........ #racism ment /

[lockandkeyhyena]

i love mlp. with my whole heart and soul. but god. it could be fucking racist. like. really really racist. does anyone remember the buffalos? does anyone remember the episode where they were like. the buffalos need to compromise with the settler ponies <3 they’re both equally in the wrong <3 the settler ponies need the land to live <3 this episode was like in 2011 but still. they brought them back

#yeen rambles #mlp #i could write so many essays on all the different racisms in mlp. but i’ll leave that to better qualified people #racism #anti-indigenous racism

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

This post now has an expanded, better researched version! Check it out!

~~~

Things I watch out for when considering if a Roman history blog/community/media might have fascist leanings:

"Ironic" jokes that demean groups of people. These are often a cover for normalizing real prejudice against those groups.

Various dogwhistles and hate symbols. Also, check out the early warning signs of fascism.

Glorification of the military or the empire's size. It's one thing to be interested in a subject, but fascists tend to ignore the many problems of Rome's military and government, like corruption, mistreatment of veterans, abuse toward non-Roman people, and the occasional genocide.

Justifying historical oppression or abuse. This is different from merely explaining or trying to understand something. In case someone simply worded something poorly, I look at their additional posts or ask for clarification. If there's a pattern of downplaying/excusing oppression, that's a bad sign.

Power fantasies. Does a person (or community) seem to identify with the conquerors and overlords, because of their power? A person making jokes about Cicero's shitty poetry, or Augustus wearing platform shoes, is probably here for a different reason than someone talking about "putting the barbarians in their place."

Ignoring women's experiences, queer history, slaves and working-class experiences, and cultural diversity. At best this could just be a newbie who hasn't gotten around to those topics yet, which is fine. Learning takes time. But if a community, historian, or professionally published work makes Rome look like it's composed solely of rich white cishet guys...there is a problem.

Flattening history into Romans vs. outsiders. "Us vs. them" themes, also seen as "civilization vs. barbarians," or "virtue vs. moral decline/degeneracy," is endemic to bigoted worldviews. Not only is it demeaning toward other cultures, it also erases how multicultural and changeable Roman identity was over time.

Also, any modern person who seriously attributes Rome's fall to "moral decline" or "degeneracy" is either deeply ignorant or using a dogwhistle for homophobia, antisemitism and racism. Also, using "barbarian" or "savage" unironically.

Be extra alert for antisemitism. Shit like justifying Hadrian's actions, bringing up Jews when discussing Roman debt problems, or idolizing Vespasian or Titus. The Romans did a lot of bad shit in Judaea, and sometimes those stories attract antisemites today.

Use of the past to justify present-day harm or anger. Fascists and racists tend to get attached to "tradition" or "the good old ways" - or what they think is tradition - believing that this makes their bigotry more "normal" instead of "bizarre, hateful and reactionary." But just because something was common in the ancient world doesn't mean it's a good idea today.

There's a lot of anger and bitterness in fascist communities in general, in fact. Many people fall into the "alt-right pipeline" because their personal lives are deeply troubled, and those places give them someone to blame and feel superior to. If hanging out in a community seems to be making you angrier, more suspicious, or looking down on certain kinds of people, think carefully about whether this is a good community to be in.

And finally...fascists aren't all that interested in history. They care about their myth of good guys vs. evil outsiders, and they warp history to fit into that narrative. They might like the aesthetics, or symbols, or idolize a few famous dudes or battles. But rarely do they know, or care, about how Roman society worked, or how it changed over time, or anything less "glorious." Rarely do they actually want to learn or put in effort. My favorite example of "fascist laziness" is Mussolini's terrible film about Scipio Africanus, in which you can see telephone wires and the extras wearing wristwatches.

Feel free to add to this list. I am not an expert at spotting this stuff, and I probably missed some things. But I figured this might be a good starting point for others, too. Don't use this list to make "callouts" or harass people - it's usually more effective to block, avoid, and report extremists than to give them more visibility.

Conversely, a great way to protect yourself from falling into the alt-right pipeline is to learn more about how diverse the Roman world was! Check out studies of ancient women, disabilities, queer people, and decolonizing the classics! Not only will they broaden your horizons, they're also fascinating in their own right.

#jlrrt speaks #ancient rome #roman history #racism #the alt-right pipeline #fascism #bigotry #things to whack racists with #jlrrt essays

[isbergillustration]

A few doodles that did not quite stand on their own

#sketchbook #portrait #ink #colour pencil #acrylic paint #illustration #artists on tumblr #ghosts #landscape #(sentient) #my art #the three blue ones are all me trying to use up leftover paint on my pallet (and in turn generation further paint on said pallet) #the last of course are my dissertation essay notes from today #the drow is my new bg3 character who is sad and tired of the fantasy racism and just trying to fuck the hot tiefling and ambient temp vamp

[cheshirepirouette]

FFXIV and its Recent History of Antiblackness [1/2]

This first link is a collection of perspectives on Yoshi-P, the head of Final Fantasy XIV and essentially the "face" of the game; he's notable for cultivating a very personal relationship with fans of the game, with there being a lot of positive associations between him and the game alike. The game wouldn't have reached its current level of popularity without him.

In this article [Eurogamer FFXIV post, titled "Yoshida's response to Final Fantasy 16's lack of diversity is "souring", says Black players"], Yoshi-P's decision to refrain from including diversity in that game was due to it being a fantasy setting that was heavily based on Medieval Europe. There are key arguments against diversity quoted in the article, with this being one of the most striking:

"In the end, we simply want the focus to be less on the outward appearance of our characters and more on who they are as people - people who are complex and diverse in their natures, backgrounds, beliefs, personalities, and motivations. People whose stories we can resonate with. There is diversity in Valisthea. Diversity that, while not all-encompassing, is synergistic with the setting we've created and is true to the inspirations from which we are drawing."

I'd already been losing interest in FFXIV because of its focus on whiteness as purity throughout the game's runtime. Things have improved on some fronts, where the villains aren't always those with the darkest skin and fantasy racism towards Fantasy Races has been addressed, but it's felt like I was pushed out of this space more and more as time went on.

Not only was I unaccounted for by the dev team and their design decisions, but I then felt Intentionally excluded when it came to fandom spaces, with Tumblr being the forefront of the movement there.

I'm going to expand on this with the primary examples of antiblackness within the game and its systems themselves, in another post that'll hopefully come soon.

#ffxiv #antiblackness #I was going to submit through ask and then realized #this is a whole damn essay sfjkdsh #next post is largely photographic evidence and examples #fandom racism

[invisible-pink-toast]

“The woman dies.

She dies to provide a plot twist. She dies to develop the narrative. She dies for cathartic effect. She dies because no one could think of what else to do with her. Dies because there weren’t any better story ideas around. Dies because her death was the very best idea that anyone could come up with.

‘I’ve got it! Let’s kill her off!’

‘Yes! Her death will solve everything!’

‘Okay! Let’s hit the pub!’

And so, the woman dies. The woman dies so the man can be sad about it. The woman dies so the man can suffer. She dies to give him a destiny. Dies so he can fall to the dark side. Dies so he can lament her death. As he stands there, brimming with grief, brimming with life, the woman lies there in silence. The woman dies for him. We watch it happen. We read about it happening. We come to know it well.”

- The Woman Dies by Aoko Matsuda (translated by Polly Barton)

#you ever read a quote and it's So Good you have to put everything down and immidiately work out an edit for it? #came across the quote watching Final Girl Studios video on Beautiful Dead Girls: The Romanticised Death of the Teenage Girl #a fantastic (although disturbing obviously) video essay on this trope #and there are so.many.examples #was hard to narrow it down to 20 #and that's just of the ones i know! let alone all the many others #plus there's the intersections?? like it's dangerous to be a female character - and a woman of colour (especially black and even more so #with dark skin) - and a queer woman (especially a lesbian) - and an abuse survivor #so based on that they obviously had to kill tara thornton 🙄 #tropes #cw death #women in refrigerators #dead lesbian #tw mysoginy #tw racism #tw homophobia #tw lesbophobia #they deserve better #Aoko Matsuda #the woman dies #quotes #dead girl trope #my post #my edit #lexa #gwen stacy #mako mori #gamora #cordelia chase #poussey washington

[chrollohearttags]

I know I said no more negativity but I’ve never met a literate, intelligent person on tiktok. All those bitches have cat in the hat reading comprehension and pre-k level of discernment. Stop determining your worth and merit as a writer off of them. Free yourselves.

#they’re literally the laughing stock of the education system #do you know how fucking stupid you have to be for teachers to be quitting by the droves bc y’all can’t read 😭 #y’all give too much of a fuck abt impressing ppl who can’t even write essays without chatgpt #miss me with the respectability politics while also being complicit with racism bc it’s ur fav fandoms #y’all be whole hypocrites on this app I swear #cherry chats 🍒 #I hate that the new girls don’t even feel like they have a safe space in fandom to grow #bc y’all wanna impress the failed result of no child left behind #all them bitches can take a short bus to hell #anyways I love you plug writers #I love you toxic relationship writers #I love you baby mama drug dealer writers

[moviestarmartini]

since a lot of vini discourse has been going on i’m appalled at the amount of people still excusing the racist insults???

yes, he is whiny. yes, he is provoking. and yet that has nothing to do with his race. nothing can ever justify anyone, no matter the club or country getting that treatment. it also doesn’t justify him getting racist chants at games he’s not even there to do said provoking and whining !!!!!

you can hate real madrid all you want but it says more about you and who you are as a person that you’re willing to excuse racism only because you don’t like him nor the club. grow up.

#‘he needs to realize they don’t like him because hes black’ yet he’s still facing racism on matches he’s not even there??? #big psa in case it wasn’t obvious enough that i don’t tolerate that attitude #if ANYONE doesn’t agree to the quintessential part of this essay block me. #i don’t want you nor your racism on my space #real madrid #☆ミ ☆彡 — football #vinicius jr #vini jr #brazil nt

[parkercore-69]

thank you J.R.R. Tolkien for writing the most devastating romantic subplot in your lotr books without even realising it

#im talking about sam and frodo sorry everyone #guess who like watched all the extended films and cried #whether you intepret sam and frodo’s love platonically or romantically you have to understand that they are so entwined that it is #devastating nonetheless #the forehead kiss #im on the ground sobbing #dawgs it was such a real depiction of how trauma is irreversible and will change you entirely #frodo baggins #i love him so fucking much guys #i love those little hobbits #samwise gamgee #lord of the rings #i could and most likely will write an essay on this #samfro #dawg sometimes love can be both platonic and romantic as queer love is not to be constrained by heteronormative values #sorry did i read too far into the little fantasy story #dude i was not expecting a story about the horrific effects of war racism and power corrupt addiction when i sat down in front of the telly #jokes on the side frodo looking absolutely miserable at sam’s wedding is so fucking real #i get it’s because he knows he cant move on and he is forever changed by his trauma but also that hobbit gay #his wound from the witch king never healing being a symbolic representation of his trauma FUCKS ME UP #frodo you may have been a whiny bitch at times but like yeah that ring probably did weigh a fuck ton and i was worse on my dofe expedition #i may be fucking too hard with lotr #lotr #teehee

[gerrysherry]

How is Aaron Bushnell a racist?

he clearly doesn't see gazans or Israelis as people

he's a white savior trying to recreate Jesus and save palestinians by dying on the cross by fire

he also called Jews lizard people but that antisemitism which isn't always racism but can be. He also all Israelis are guilty of war crimes because they can be drafted.

so don't go "OH Germaine said antisemites are racist" or "Germaine said he's racist because he hates Israelis"

I said he's racist because he thinks that the best way to save starving Gazans who could be killed at any moment is DIE HIMSELF because he believes Israel will draft HIM too

and people are stanning him as if he's the second coming of christ and drowning out actual Palestinean and Gazan voices for depressed white boy who pulled a deadly publicity stunt

people are quick to appropriate POC only language for him (rest in power) and violently shut down any POC (antizionist POC who are also pro-palestine) because being anti-aaron MUST mean you hate palestineans

So if you do that YOU are AS RACIST as the white boy you sanctified for politically commiting suicide and doing nothing else to help anyone

#aaron bushnell #racism #antisemitism #performative activism #my essays #my rants #fuck the racist white boy #and fuck his stans #stop fandomizing the war

[roakkaliha]

getting back into stardew valley n once again becoming the biggest defender of the hated townies. pam and demetrius get behind me NOW.

#.txt #stardew valley #one day i will go insane and write a whole essay abt these characters n how ppl will completely misinterpret them #usually due to racism/ableism/classism/etc n bc the character has a complicated relationship with whoever they wanna fuck #like the only reason ppl call demetrius abusive is bc hes a black man with a complicated relationship with the emo twink they like #theres nothing in the actual game that even implies abuse. its literally just bc demetrius is black n thus Scary and Violent #hes flawed but so is sebastian

[herinsectreflection]

I Guess Her Generation Isn't Cool With Witchcraft (Gingerbread)

On the 24th May 1988 the Conservative government of Great Britain, led by Margaret Thatcher, passed a law known officially as the United Kingdom Local Government Act 1988. This Act had many effects, but by far its most famous and influential section was the part that has come to be known as Section 28. Section 28 outlawed any school or local authority in the United Kingdom from “promoting homosexuality”, “publishing any material with the intention of promoting homosexuality”, or “promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. Given that the act (intentionally) made no effort to define “promotion”, the effect was clear and predesigned: from 1988 until its full repeal in 2003, queerness was illegal in British schools.

This justification for this discrimination was the same one that is always trotted out - the protection of children from predatory influences. Homophobic attitudes were rising in the wake of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, whipped up by an entrenched conservative government and a vulturine news industry. The likes of The Sun, Daily Mail, and The Telegraph ran regular scare pieces about the homosexual lifestyle and its apparent attempts to indoctrinate children. The most benign depictions of queer acceptance were accused of being pornographic, of being propagandic, of “glorifying homosexual intercourse”. One book - Jenny Lives With Eric And Martin - was described by The Sun as “vile” and Today as “gay porn”[1], and was deemed controversial enough to kickstart the movement that resulted in Section 28. It depicts a girl with a gay father, engaging in such salacious events as going to the laundrette, and planning a birthday party.

The accusations leveled at these books were lies, and easily revealed as lies to anyone concerned enough to engage in actual research, but their purpose was not to be true. Their purpose was to combine latent homophobia in the general population with the instinctive human desire to protect the young. Together, these elements create a powerful boogeyman. This boogeyman was then paraded out during the general election of 1987, in which the Labour Party was attacked for their (claimed) promotion of such offensive materials. This was an imagined threat cooked up by bigots and seized upon by political actors most interested in protecting their capital. It worked. The Conservatives won the election with 42% of the vote, and remained in power until 1997. 

It is into this cultural landscape that Buffy airs the eleventh episode of Season Three, Gingerbread. The plot revolves around the deaths of two young children, and how those deaths spark a wave of anti-witch paranoia among the townsfolk of Sunnydale; a paranoia that escalates into censorship, persecution, and eventually a literal witch-burning. The dead children are eventually revealed to be an evil demon exerting some kind of mind control on the population, which is standard practice for Buffy hijinks. The important aspects are the real-world parallels that this storyline is intending to highlight.

Read More

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs meta #meta #essay #insect reflection #s3 #gingerbread #buffy summers #willow rosenberg #theme: queerness #racism #section 28

[thepersonalwords]

If the idea of loving those whom you have been taught to recognize as your enemies is too overwhelming, consider more deeply the observation that we are all much more alike than we are unalike.

Aberjhani, Splendid Literarium: A Treasury of Stories, Aphorisms, Poems, and Essays

#quotes #Aberjhani #Splendid Literarium: A Treasury of Stories #Aphorisms #Poems #and Essays #thepersonalwords #literature #life quotes #prose #lit #spilled ink #agape-love #anti-racism #antiracism #belief-in-nonviolence #children-victims-of-war #civility #coexistence #compassion-heals-lives #compassion-love #compassion-wisdom #coping-with-change #courage-to-love #discourse-on-a-better-world #diversity #ending-terrorism #ending-war #enemy-quotes #faith-in-humanity

[forthegothicheroine]

Swastikas in punk are basically another way for kids to get a rise out of their parents and maybe the press, both of whom deserve the irritation. To the extent that most of these spikedomes ever had a clue what the stuff originally meant, it only went so far as their intent to shock. "It's like a stance", as Ivan [Julian] says. "A real immature way of being dangerous." Maybe. Except that after a while this casual, even ironic embrace of the totems of bigotry crosses over into the real poison... Something harder to pass off entered the air in 1977, when I started encountering little zaps like this: I opened up a copy of a Florida punk fanzine called New Order and read an article by Miriam Linna of the Cramps, Nervus Rex, and now Zantees: “I love the Ramones [because] this is the celebration of everything American — everything teenaged and wonderful and white and urban…” You could say the “white” jumping out of that sentence was just like Ornette Coleman declaring This Is Our Music, except that the same issue featured a full-page shot of Miriam and one of her little friends posing proudly with their leathers and shades and a pistol in front of the headquarters of the United White People’s Party, under a sign bearing three flags: “GOD” (cross), “COUNTRY” (stars and stripes), “RACE” (swastika). Sorry, Miriam, I can go just so far with affectations of kneejerk cretinism before I puke.

Lester Bangs, The White Noise Supremacists

#racism cw #lester bangs #nazis cw #i've said it before but all us goths and punks have to read this essay

[luxwing]

I just gotta fight the final boss in totk but like can I say something that really irritates me with the story is that they never actually say what Ganondorf's motivation is to be evil? They just say oh that guys evil and wants power

But like...why tho

I know, I know, pretty much every Zelda game with ganondorf as a main antagonist doesn't really give him much motivation aside from weh evil dude want power but I feel like they wanted to show people they could do more with the franchise so far as storytelling goes and then they just...did nothing with him. They just used a villain from the series and said hey we don't have to say why he's bad because you already know he's bad pay no mind to how we just gave the entire timeline the biggest shaft you've ever seen

Like yeah, I'm overthinking this 100% and overanalyzing a fucking Zelda game of all things but I also really feel like Nintendo needs to just do better writing when it comes to Zelda.

Also I'm mad that Ganondorf's character peaked at Wind Waker and just became "hey look it's the bad guy" forever after that.

Whatever tho for all the stuff the game does well and is actually fun playing through, the story really ends up just being...another Zelda story. Yay I guess.

#totk #other people have written better more well structured essays on nintendos racism with ganondorf so i wont get into that #do i feel like nintendos ingrained racism and imperialism are part of WHY ganondorf isnt given any nuance or potential for depth #yeah absolutely i do and i fucking hate it