#There's another character too who's Jamaican (?) and I think he's speaking just another language | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ninzied · 3 years

Text

i’ve been really feeling the energy surrounding the discourse on race re: the falcon and the winter soldier, and i think it is so crucial that the mcu has created space for this conversation. in that vein, and because i have genuinely enjoyed the show for many reasons that i wish not to detract from, i would like to expand on this space by discussing ways in which the show could have engaged more thoughtfully with its themes of racialized trauma.

for your consideration, a list of the show’s side characters who identity as bipoc, and how their arcs in fact work to reify certain stereotypic portrayals of race in tv/film/etc:

isaiah bradley: the military-sanctioned super soldier program that experimented on bradley for 30 years in jail is a clear allusion to the tuskegee study in the mid-1900s, which subjected black bodies with syphilis to decades of unethical experimentation, including the withholding of life-saving treatment, in order to study the natural progression of the disease. i actually think his conversations with sam were so important to have. it’s the first explicit mention of race that problematizes the shield as a symbol. sam comes to acknowledge that it also stands for a country that has built itself on the backs of black (and immigrant) bodies - and that is where they mean for these bodies to stay, through exploitation of labor, medicalized violence (tuskegee being only one example of many), police brutality, the segregation of schools, discriminatory housing and criminal justice systems, and so on. my issue is that these systems of oppression are so deeply rooted that to skim the bare surface - to present this one singular narrative - is reductive of a longstanding history that does not live externally to the mcu and is frankly not going to cut it. waiting until episode 5 to have this conversation was also a disservice to sam. maybe his own generational trauma was too internalized for him to have the language to express it. but if the show had addressed this better and sooner, it would come off less as sam trying to move through the world thinking he’s just like any other guy who also happens to be a superhero. when he goes to the bank with sarah, flaps his ‘wings’ and still doesn’t qualify for a loan; or when he chides a kid for referring to him as ‘black falcon’ rather than, simply ‘falcon’ - these moments reinforce the idea that the lived experience of his blackness is not fully realized until bradley forces this articulation upon him. it is as though sam could not already be aware of their collective racialized trauma without the ‘revelation’ of bradley’s personal trauma writ large that he endured as a super soldier. which is just weird and inconsistent given what sam has been through, including his own troubled relationship with the military. for sam to take up the shield is not a ‘solution’ to racism, any more than the shield is a symbol of heroism, when its legacy stems from a country of deeply imperialist and colonialist roots.

lemar hoskins: relegated to the black best friend stereotype aka sidekick to the main white character. his two most memorable scenes function mostly in service of john walker’s story - firstly in walker’s decision to take the serum, and secondly as the catalyst to walker’s grief, rage and vengeance that will utterly transform him. this development of walker’s character can only occur through the literal death of another black body.

literally every east asian character, but specifically leah, yori and yori’s son rj: these characters are the least fleshed out on their own, as they all exist solely to lend more depth to bucky’s trauma. i say this because though yori is grieving, his grief is all secondary to bucky’s guilt over being the cause of that grief. leah, who plays a love interest for her five seconds of screen time, becomes yet another of countless examples of the fetishization of asian female bodies. (all of this is particularly tone-deaf in the wake of rising anti-asian hate crimes, and the mass killing of asian female spa workers by a man who wished to eliminate ‘temptation’ for his sexual addiction.) also, it would be nice to see a show finally lean away from the asian food establishment setting for its asian characters. that is not the only place they eat and work and also go on dates after they work????

olivia walker: a great example of tokenism that checks multiple boxes (‘look how diverse our cast is - and we have an interracial couple!’) even though she speaks 0-2 lines throughout the whole show.

karli morgenthau and co: the actress who portrays karli is half-jamaican, and it is not hard to notice that the overwhelming majority of the radicalized flag-smashers group are bipoc as well. at surface level it might make sense for the show writers to choose this kind of representation - the ‘displaced’ are all members of marginalized communities, and racial diversity (i.e., diversity from the norm, i.e., not-white) is the easiest way to depict these communities. but for this reason, it also seems that the show could not be more careless with the parallels it has drawn to our current climate. during a global pandemic, which has disproportionately affected those already most disenfranchised; increased our obsession with border control; and galvanized movements against racialized violence, perhaps the last thing we need right now is a narrative that vilifies a marginalized group of people trying to combat structural oppression (operationalized in this case by the grc, which has a clear militaristic and political pedigree*). perhaps the last thing we need right now is a narrative in which marginalized people gain the power to enact change (i.e., serum), but only know how to use that power to cause more harm.

*please note: the senator who grants walker his other than honorable discharge is one and the same as the talking head of the grc. who gave this guy all the power, and what good is he using it for? this may be a hot take but the government + military washing their hands of walker and taking zero responsibility for their role in his making is not great for ‘optics’ either. but the show, for all its moralizing, doesn’t seem to be aware of the dissonance here?

#the falcon and the winter soldier #tfatws #tfatws spoilers #tfatwsdaily #marveldaily #dailyavengers #race #racism #racial politics #thcrin #userbells #thank you for coming to my ted talk #a gentle reminder that #enjoying a thing #and engaging critically with the thing we enjoy #are not mutually exclusive!#curious to know other people's thoughts

90 notes · View notes

wherearemyglassesbro · 4 years

Note

If you could put any character into Hetalia what country would they be

Oooo!!

Mexico: OH BOY!! If Mexico isn’t introduced as a woman I will 1000% go bonkers. She has so much potential! Here we go. Mexico is a strong willed woman with curly hair and a confident air around her 24/7. She doesn’t like to speak English so she will only speak Spanish, especially with America, she won’t speak English with him just because. She is very passionate about her country’s rich history and will educate anyone who is interested, she doesn’t discriminate, she’s excited to share her culture with others :) She is very involved with children. She visits orphanages and hospitals to see them and tell them stories! She takes Mexican holidays very seriously and she puts photos of old friends on her alter during Dia de los Muertos to keep their memories alive long after their families are gone, she believes she owes it to them :’) She also has a HUGE passion for quinceneras ooooh my gosh!! She throws about six every year for families who can’t afford big parties, she throws them herself with her own government allowance! She makes the dress, books a nice venue and buys tons of flowers ‘every girl deserves to have her own special moment’ and you can bet that when the girls dance with their dads she has to excuse herself to cry happy tears in the bathroom. She often goes to church and she has crosses and statues of Jesus adorning her house because it makes her feel safe and comforted to have Him there to watch over her. Lastly, she knows she shouldn’t feed stray dogs. She’s been told not to....But she leaves seven dog bowls out at night for hungryc homeless doggies :’)

Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan would be a tall, slender woman with with deep brown eyes. She’s very stylish and has three closets worth of beautiful dresses, especially dresses that are yellow, orange and peach since she thinks they suit her best. She’s a Muslim woman but she doesn’t wear hijabs, they are not very common in her country at all so she doesn’t wear them. However, she has a collection of hijabs in every color just in case she may want to wear one. She’s kind but if she sees people littering or graffiti-ing buildings she will stomp over there and tell them off, she fears no man!! She loves children and goes out of her way to greet them and compliment their clothes or something like that. She’s fluent in many languages and often pretends she doesn’t speak English because she prefers her own language, Russian and French. She is very traditional when it comes to tea culture and hospitality. She’s a wonderful woman who loves her people very much!! :)

Ethiopia: Miss Ethiopia is so strong dude, she can easily toss a man in a river if she wanted to. She says she doesn’t like violence but she does get a kick out of putting men in their place if she has to. She does NOT mess around!!! She can’t stand liars, she refuses to associate with them. She almost always tells the truth, it is very important to her. If the government wants her to lie to her people, she will not. She does not enjoy living in her capital, it’s too stuffy and crowded for her!! And she doesn’t really like modern clothing so she sticks to her traditional clothes, which she mostly makes herself. Her hair is usually very intricate, she spends a long time braiding it. She loves her natural hair and does everything she can to keep it healthy :) She travels all over her country constantly she’s never in one place for too long. She rarely goes to world meetings just because she doesn’t...like to go. She sees them as a waste of time since she could be back at home with her people. She’s very involved with them!! She has a medical license so she helps sick men, women and children who may not have access to medical help. She loves her people so much and has dedicated most of her life to them, she’s selfless and a role model :’)

Greenland: He’s a strong boy who’s about 17-18 physically. He lives close with his citizens and is very social! He’s very involved in the community, more than happy to help whoever needs it! A woman needs help with her baby? He’s there to help! Someone’s stuck out on the water? No worries, he’s gonna go get his boat and help them back to shore! He sticks to where his people are and will move with them. If a city becomes less popular he’ll move to be close to others. When he was young he was alone a lot so staying close to his people is very very important to him! He doesn’t get invited to as many of Nordic events like Iceland does so he’s a bit bitter about that though he’d never admit it.

Jamaica: Miss Jamaica is a very strong woman. She is proud to be Jamaican and will let everybody know it! She goes to church every Sunday and helps out within the church community. Helping the elderly is very important to her, she sees people disregard the elderly a lot in the world so she sees it as her duty to help them! She dedicates Monday and Wednesday afternoons to helping out her elderly friends by cooking, cleaning and just socializing with them especially if they have no other family. It’s stereotypical but she loves when tourists come to Jamaica for Bob Marley’s birthday concert because seeing everyone bond over music and food like that makes her incredibly happy!! She’ll even set up a tent to make food for people too! And speaking of food, she knows how to cook, man!!! She can cook circles around most nations! She puts in a ton of spices and sings while cooking and she invites all of her neighbors over for cook outs as often as she can cause she just!! Loves to cook! And now she gets to share with her neighbors :) She’s a very kind woman but Dont underestimate her cause she can and will beat your ass u_u

Hawaii: I’m not really into statetalia at all but I imagine that Hawaii still has a representation around despite being part of the US. We’ve got another beautiful woman!! She’s about 5’6 with waist length hair that she’s been growing out for years. She is very passionate about conserving Hawaiian traditions so she teaches children the art of hula and passes down legends and stories of the spirits. Her arms and legs are decorated with tribal tattoos that she updates every decade or so since nation bodies reject ink over time. She often attends protests because she doesn’t want her land to be taken over by pipes or buildings. She gladly welcomes tourists, she loves showing off her culture to those who are curious about it because it’s so fun to see their eyes light up when they see traditional dances or fire stunts!

Most of these are women but there are like 4 female nations rn theyre all men which isn’t bad but female nations are even more interesting to me since women are constantly underestimated y’know. I hope I got this right, I did a lot of research first about these places. I think they’re all very beautiful places!!

#this ask got BURIED #im sorry if I got anything wrong skdjskjdbs I love these countries I really do I think theyre beautiful and interesting skdjskhs #aph #hetalia #headcanons #hetalia headcanons #aph azerbaijan #aph ethiopia #aph greenland #aph jamaica #aph mexico #I love azerbaijan btw I did a huge project on it in middle school and I still read up on it often!!#its goregous there!! and the food and tea looks good #and im not even a tea drinker lmao

42 notes · View notes

tiasalle-blog · 6 years

Text

that’s TIASALLE DALMA walking down the street, the twenty six year old, who looks like zoe kravitz. here in apple peak, they own "mystique botanica". some say she acts like tia dalma/calypso from pirates of the caribbean, since she can be enticing, but also a little bit frightening

my sixth and final child !! queen of the seas, obeah voodoo priestess, riddler and rhymer. i present my absolute goddess tiasalle.

tiasalle, of african origins meaning “ it is forgotten ”

tiasalle remembers some of her past, but not all of it. it comes to her in flashes, much like visions, and she believes that it is the person she was in a past life, and that she is a reincarnation of tia dalma, goddess of the sea.

she was born in saint mary parish, jamaica, to an obeah woman and a witch doctor. her parents were both heavily spiritual, and believed deeply in demons, hoodoo, and magic. tiasalle grew up learning the ways of obeah, a form of voodoo similar to haitian voodoo that originated in the igbo communities of nigeria and came to the united states with the arrival of slaves.

obeah was outlawed in jamaica in 1760 following a slave rebellion, and the practice was still dangerous throughout tiasalle’s childhood. her parents were very secretive about it, and ended up moving to the united states with their daughter so they could teach her about their religion and culture without persecution.

they moved to apple peak when tiasalle was ten, and to be quite honest she hated it. it was cold, wet, and nothing like the home she had always known. she didn’t understand at the time that it was done to keep her and her parents safe.

the saving grace of apple peak was the beach. tiasalle had always felt connected to the water in some way, particularly the ocean. if you ever needed to find her, it was an easy bet that that was where she would be, searching for crabs and shells to bring back home for her spells.

her parents opened mystique botanica as a way to make money. originally it operated out of their home, but as business grew more steady they were able to afford a small shop in the shadier part of apple peak.

tiasalle spent most of her days helping her parents in the shop. it functioned both as a traditional botanica (an herbal supply store specializing in folk medicine) and hoodoo shop. her father was a natural/magical healer and her mother performed spells and made potions to help the community. outwardly it seemed like a steady and happy operation, but there were darker dealings going on that most people couldn’t see.

aside from selling balms to promote hair growth, doing tarot readings, and conducting love spells, mystique botanica’s other specialty lied in dark magic. voodoo dolls, possession, spells to cause harm to others. this was the dark side of obeah, and the side most commonly practiced by tiasalle’s mother.

a key part of obeah is the fact that the practitioner controls the spirits. there is no such thing as the rule of three or karma in obeah. the man or woman controls karma and bends spirits to their will. it is a dangerous practice, but incredibly powerful when done correctly. you dabble with both dark and light magic, good and evil spirits.

as tiasalle grew older and became more in touch with her magic, she began to feel inner turmoil. she felt as though she didn’t belong on this earth in a physical form, and believed she was meant to be part of the sea. her practices reflect this, and she focuses heavily on ocean-based spells.

when she was nineteen, a spell of tiasalle’s went horribly wrong. she is convinced that she angered the wrong type of spirit and that it lead to the tragic death of her parents, who succumbed in a mysterious fire inside mystique botanica. police blamed it on all the candles, but tiasalle knew the truth. she has been plagued by this ever since.

she repaired and reopened mystique botanica to both honour her parents and keep obeah alive in apple peak. she enjoys the control it gives her over some of the residents who come to her for her less savoury spells. light magic can be bought with money, but dark magic is bartered.

tiasalle is not a con-woman, but she firmly believes in being paid properly for what she is giving. if you want her to spend a month whipping up a potion for you to slip in somebody’s drink so that they’ll fall into a romeo and juliet style death-sleep, she’s gonna need more than a few dollars. she’ll want favours. gathering ingredients, finding interesting artifacts, human sacrifice, selling your soul ... these are the prices you may have to pay to get her to mingle with those dark forces that killed her parents. though it’s not a high price to pay for what you’re getting. tiasalle promises a 100% success rate with any of her “ products ”

speaks in riddles, and with a heavy jamaican accent. sometimes she can be hard to understand because of her dialect, as she was raised speaking jamaican patois, a pidgin language that, though not officially recognized, is one of the main languages in jamaica. she didn’t begin learning “ real english ” until she moved to the united states.

didn’t go to high school, or elementary school. she grew up being educated in the family business by her parents, and they never felt the need for her to partake in traditional schooling.

tiasalle is very flirty, and very charming. she often uses her beauty to her advantage, to gain customers or convince you to ask her for something other than what you originally came for. calypso was a seductress, after all.

her personality is quite playful and enigmatic, and she thinks of most things in life as a game with a prize to be won. the only thing she truly takes seriously is obeah, because she knows how terrible things can turn out if you are disrespectful of the spirits who are supplying you with your power. she will always come back at your question with another one, until you are completely puzzled and falling into her trap.

she is messy. super messy. messy unlike anyone has ever seen. she keeps mystique botanica clean because it’s a business but her house is a mess of jars and plants and crystals and animal bones and candles and anything you could think of.

she swims in the ocean a lot. though she more just floats there and thinks than actually swimming. she feels the most connected to her magic when she’s in the water.

reads tarot. will tell you your future. you won’t believe her but she’s got a p decent idea. bridal parties are her favourite.

tiaselle is a talented scrier, using water as her medium to “ contact the beyond ”

she once was in love with a young naval officer. she met him when she was eighteen, and fell for him quickly. he fell for her too and they were so sickeningly in love that she would have done anything for him. however, when he found out about her family and obeah he thought she was insane and left her, which broke her heart. this was what led to her channeling the spirit that eventually killed her parents. she wanted to get back at him for breaking her heart and so she attempted a spell that would kill him. she had never attempted magic that dark before and her mother had warned her time and time again not to ask the spirits for something as dramatic as giving or taking life. it didn’t go as she planned and the officer didn’t die, her parents did.

she has slowly gotten a little battier over the years, an effect that practicing obeah so heavily can have on the mind. she often talks about things that make no sense.

there is a loving woman under there somewhere, but she’s too interested in herself to really show it.

don’t trust her to cook you anything. there will be weird shit in it i guarantee. eyeballs in your gumbo, man.

more will be added as i explore the character !!

#curse:intro #anything but what i am; (tiasalle)#death tw #just a mention #ableism tw

2 notes · View notes

7m0r0-blog · 6 years

Text

401 1.1 Deconstruction. (Emmanuel Dultheo)

We were previously asked to create a mindmap diagram to evaluate and write down all the components in our brand. Here i’m going to break down and reflect on the different headlines given.

IMAGE & INDENTITY

I want to start by saying that I’ve always had a quite reserved personality which is one of the things people can easily observe when they meet me for the first time. As an artist in the past I could say that it was very difficult over coming what i would call “Post upload anxiety”, which is basically not being confident enough to share your art with other people. This kind of explain why I wrote “Anti-Social Socialite” Which is a big part of my character, I take a big pleasure engaging, collaborating and discuss with people, but I may be perceived by people as anti social given that I act very “non chalantly” at times which may be very confusing or seen as a character flaw as a first impression. I have always been a little bit naive in the sense that I trusted things and words easily, as a kid I always looked at cartoon and anime character as almost a father figure like naruto, luffy, Ash, and Like i would see how they acted and they were similarities like they would be the strongest but they always had a team, they didn’t believe in the traditional ways of thinking, they were always humble and other qualities which all gave me confidence to be myself at all times and later find out that all these qualities also help a lot in real life and plays a big part when chasing success. As for my image I always liked the outliers in most fields like sport, music, tv. I think my image is a influenced by a lot of different cultures, like hip hop, London streets, Martinique’s streets, French, Black French, Skateboarding. A mix of different cultures which means for example back then I was a fan of skateboarding trainers, but I also liked the baggy jeans too or a nike tracksuit and Lacoste trainers. So the way I dress, talk, and act would be influenced by a series of different cultures.

CREATIVE OUTPUT

I put out my first video as Doranbeats on youtube in 2015, the year after 2016 I decided to make a beatstars account to start selling my beats online, It was working and still is but then i wanted to work closely with artist because most of my sales were coming from overseas, at the time I did not have that many contacts so I decided to record on my own beats and this is when I made the transition from producer to artist which means i can be creative in different format, I then named myself Doran, but I then changed it to N.AroD because I didn’t want those two brands to be associated together, but later down the line “N.AroD” was still too similar to the original producing brand so I went with 7M0R0, which is pronounced “Tomorrow” Because it is a powerful word that people use everyday, its easily pronounced if you can’t speak the language, the meaning of the word is very interesting and the spelling kind of make it stand out. It is spelled like that because of the era I grew up in as a teenager, we started seeing more and more brand names especially in music start with numbers or replacing letters with numbers which is kind of a trendy behaviour nowadays but will later be seen as one of the characteristics used to identify this era of the culture, knowing that I was going to develop the brand I wanted this kind of characteristics in the name of the brand so It will always be memorable and associated with this era of hip hop. After my first project I just kept releasing singles via soundcloud, to build a fan base and so people can observe diversity in my music.

INDUSTRY AWARENESS

Growing up I didn’t get much information about the Industry, after a lot of thinking and investigating, I came to the conclusion that no one would “come out of the blue” to sit me down and teach me about the industry, and thats when I did my research and surrounded myself with passionate people that I finally got insight on what is behind the curtain. One thing that also helped me a lot when trying to figure out the industry and how it works was watching top entertainers interview and dissecting them. It is a lot of valuable information such as, how to get paid, how to beat “creative blocks”, beneficial behaviours...etc. There are also a lot of podcasts/tutorials and things that tells you a lot about the industry, I watched those too but not as much as interviews, as some of those videos would be completely outdated advice.

EXPERIENCE

Spending the most part of my childhood living in my grand mother’s house in Martinique, helped me built character and taught me a lot about different human behaviours. It also gave me informations as to how to deal and talk to other women as i was living at the time with 3 or 4 women (mum, grand mother & aunties) and my grand father. Before this time period i was living in French Guiana for about 2 years, I really love it out there because it is a land in south America full of diverse cultures (Taki-Taki, Asian, Creole etc...). One of the reasons why i got along with people or managed to get accepted in certain circles without trying is because from a young age I been exposed to a multitude of different cultures, which helped develop my own personality and confidence from young. One of the most mind opening trip, I have had was back in 2007, when for a month and a half, my mother and me went to Switzerland. This was so shocking to me at 9 to be around kids from all around the globe and in this massive private school with crazy budgets. I was mind blown to know that there was so much things happening outside of my culture and even worse, that certain people weren’t even familiar with my country or my struggles. I think these different experience really helped me once i came to London as a teenager, not knowing the language, the culture and “the streets”, I’m saying that because I found out a lot of people from here accepted me for how weird i was even though they wouldn’t accept other people with the same interests as me sometimes. I didn’t know exactly what i was, or who i was but I understood I had to stand behind everything I was presenting to people from a young age. Whilst all this was happening I also learnt how to appreciate life and the value in it, because of numerous death in my family and around me. Which is one of the principles reflected by my brand, to value life which is different from “getting the most out of life” to me.

PRODUCT

The first piece of music I’ve ever owned was from a French singer/song writer called Pascal Obispo, at the time it was my favourite music ever because of the instruments he was able to play, I also think this where part of my love for pianos come from, because I’d always watch him perform live on tv. Another important album for me was “welcome to jamrock” by Damian Marley, and also I had a lot of positive memories attached to this album. I was already listening to a lot of music from Jamaica (Dancehall, Reggae & Bashment) but what made me gravitate toward Damian was is non chalant energy, his look and how he was using is voice so meticulously in every single track on this project. Growing up I was also obsessed with video games especially games from animes such as naruto, one piece and pokemon, i already explained why i liked this so much earlier. What bred this love for animes, and cartoons all started because of DBZ mangas I used to read, I had tons of mangas in my room all the time. With that said Nintendo and Playstation played a big roll in my life The brand logos were all around the house. My favourite games were, DBZ Budokai, Pokemon Red, green and platinum, GTA san andreas, Dragon quest, One piece and saint seiya. After awhile I started paying more attention to music and developing my taste in music, and it was kind of all over the place. My favourite project of all time is from Wiz Khalifa called “Taylor allderdice” everything about this project just seemed so coherent and holistically made. A group that had a big impact on my understanding of music was Green Dayz, I loved some of their tracks so much because it was never traditional rock, it just sounded amazing to me. And no one in my entourage at the time could understand why i gravitated towards this kind of music. Other project also influenced me later down the line, such as WATTBA, Better dayz Pt.2 (which i never knew about before 2013), Trapsoul, Rolling papers and DS2. Moving onto movies, they aren’t usually that memorable to me. I just have that 1 film that i hold above everything else, because i related to it so much and the writing, I just found amazing, This movie is called “17 years”.

MARKET AWARENESS

I became familiar with Hip Hop culture I’d say way later than my peers, and by becoming familiar I mean get a basic understanding of it. Due to my geographical position on earth, our culture was very much influenced by jamaican culture which as well as American Hip Hop culture, with trends such as graffiti, baggy clothes, nike and jordans. Anyone could come to my Island and pinpoint the different influences from hip hop culture, but growing up in the island not knowing the history of hip hop due to language barriers I always thought it all came from us and found it normal. I was never questioning why I’d wear certain things and brand because I didn’t know where it was coming from at all. With the advancement of technology I started understanding more and finally understood that i was part of the market if I was influenced by it. One thing that I started noticing as well was auto tune, and i first noticed it when Lil wayne first came out with his hit singles such as “a milli”. Jewellery is another thing that I realised was a big part of hip hop artists brand and at the time I just thought that every artist had to have jewellery because it has been pushed on the market for so long. With technology the music industry became more accessible to regular people, which i first observed when I realised that more and more people i knew or seen at some point in my life were later part of this industry, which also means that they were going to be more and more artists.

CLIENT/FAN BASE

I started putting products (Beats) out on YouTube to build a fan base and get my beats heard by potential clients, knowing that YouTube is one of the biggest online platforms. In the first year I managed to get 400+ subs so I carried on, then i was missing sales because i was missing emails, so I joined beatstars to sell my beats online without me having to email files at crazy times. Once I did that I wanted to expand my reach to IG,Facebook and Soundcloud. So that’s exactly what I did, I created multiple account for doranbeats on different platforms and started uploading Doran’s content on them. As for my soundcloud audience 7M0R0 just kept dropping music at least once a month.

CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS

I’ve always had a good relationship with my clients, and never really had any complaints. Dealing with clients, contacts and potential clients I always show respect and always make sure i’m attentive to what they have to say about my services and their demands. This way of carefully dealing with people always helped me meet even more people, because once a good first impression made people would in some cases recommend me to their friends or clients.

CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING

My sound was influenced by a lot of different artist from different cultures. My French rap influence were, Booba, Lafouine, Soprano & Alpha 5.20. I gravitated towards them because the way they produced music was never seen before especially in the french rap culture. Zouk Music is a genre of music from Martinique which also was a big part of my understanding of rhythm and music in general. Jamaican singers were the closest to my own culture so I naturally gravitated towards Bashment, Reggae and Dancehall, with influences from Vybz Kartel, Popcaan and Mr. vegas, with other Caribbean artists such as Kalash and Eugene Mona (both from Martinique). My American hip hop influences come from 50Cent, Wiz Khalifa, Chief Keef, Lil Uzi Vert, Snoop Dogg, Famous Dex, Chris Brown. Not all of these artists influences my sound directly, but some played a big role influencing my brand on other levels such as “Image & Identity”. Other American Artist I felt inspired by was Rihanna, Jason Mraz, Neil diamonds, Al Green and Jamiroquai.

0 notes

mariacorley · 7 years

Text

How to be Black

My original reason for self-publishing a novel was to allow my protagonists, Langston and Cecile, the light of day. I started with the notion that if only a handful of people read my book, my beloved creations would still have lived and breathed somewhere other than on my computer. Publishers who cater to people like me used to be called vanity presses; there's some truth to that. It didn't take long before I began to dream of a larger audience, watching YouTube videos and absorbing blog posts that purported to show indie authors how to achieve unimaginable success. One of the most important parts of the plan seemed to be reviews, and so, emboldened by three 5 star reviews from total strangers, I asked everyone I could who had read my book if they would mind posting their opinions about it on Amazon. Some did, but many didn't, so I took it to the next level, paying to join a database that allowed me to contact random people who had demonstrated an interest in writing and sharing reviews.

I sent out numerous requests, but so far only a couple of those people have followed through. One of them is the inspiration for this post. Dr. Jacques Coulardeau sent me his review—two pages so full of inaccuracies and negative extrapolation that I was shocked that he gave me 4 stars—on Martin Luther King Day, a coincidence that I find ironic. Examples of his misleading statements include his portrayal of Cecile as “one who makes love with any boy available that is rather good looking,” for whom “pre-marital intercourse is a basic principle,” even though she has sex with exactly two men in the book, the first a one night stand during which she loses her virginity, the second her eventual husband. Coulardeau then glosses over the character's considerable internal conflict between her religious background and her sexual relationship with the “love of her life” by saying, “She does not realize her contradiction.” Um...not true. When Langston and Cecile meet, the reviewer says that Cecile “of course gives herself as if it were a question of life or death,” even though their relationship unfolds long distance. He even rebuts his own statement by adding “Cecile in a way makes the relation kind of satirical, humorous, un-serious.” Dr. Coulardeau states that Langston's decision to open a West Indian restaurant is simply because the cuisine is trendy. Um...nope. He also mentions that Langston's friends-with-benefits relationship, while in college, with the daughter of his Italian boss is doomed because of her father's disapproval, implying that Langston and Marietta aren't both aware, from day one, that their contact is a dalliance, and failing to mention an even more intense disapproval from Langston's Jamaican grandmother. And so on.

I won't dispute every incorrect statement, but—call me Donald Trump—I can't leave his final conclusion about my protagonists alone: “They definitely tricked their life-treks and they ended lost in some kind of tasteless, heartless, mindless deculturated wasteland.” His evidence? The characters are neither black nor West Indian enough for him. They eat West Indian food, but they don't speak the way he thinks they should (he is apparently a linguist; I'm merely someone who grew up as a Canadian West Indian). Further evidence of lost cultural identity includes Langston's decision to cook a jerked turkey with mango salsa at Thanksgiving. I forgot to mention that the expert on what West Indians are supposed to be is an elderly Jewish man, who also took time out to pass judgments on Cecile's Christian journey in ways that my devoutly Christian readers did not. Huh?

These days, it's rare that a white person is overtly paternalistic enough to publicly claim knowledge of who black people should be, which is pretty much the same thing as informing us of our proper “place.” For obvious reasons, these kinds of statements are not nearly so uncommon in the black community. For example, the inability to “code-switch” is seen by some melanated people as proof of being an oreo: black on the outside, white on the inside. What does that mean, though?

Being an immigrant changes things, whether your relocation is voluntary or involuntary. Isn't it both natural and human to exert and receive influence as a result? When Dr. Coulardeau rails against the evils of multiculturalism, I think he may mean that distinct ethnic groups shouldn't lose touch with their cultural heritage. I support this idea, however, what does that include and exclude? Am I allowed to like only a particular kind of music, or cook a particular kind of food? If I am allowed to like things that aren't native to my ethnic group, a concept that has become hopelessly tangled, in most cases, by intermarriage (and here I mean even Jamaicans marrying Nigerians), how much should we like those things? How often can we indulge in them? What if we understand some of our ancestral language or dialect, but aren't fluent? Do we all need to repatriate to a country of cultural origin? Can we live in the suburbs? Or should our entire lives become a kind of performance art?

Coulardeau noted that “Canada is the best representative of multiculturalism and New York (where Cecile attends Juilliard) is one of the most diverse melting pot or salad bowl in the world,” calling the references to the various cultures there “anecdotal.” First, Canada is a vast nation, and I can assure you that most of it isn't particularly multicultural, although Toronto, where Langston lives (in Little Jamaica!), certainly consists of distinct ethnic enclaves. My main focus in writing the book, however, had to do with issues of personal growth that people can confront regardless of their race. Nevertheless, one reviewer said, “The issue of race is an important sub-stratum of the story and adds to its depth.” Another take: “How refreshing to encounter complex people who deal with racism and nonetheless dream beyond the limits of what's realistic. Unlike a lot of prime time television, Letting Go's characters defy stereotypes and earn your trust as a reader.” This reviewer, who is an African American female activist, also said of Cecile, “She's confident in her blackness and even when she's down, she's not out.”

Enough self-defense. I am more drawn to people's internal lives, so people who are looking for detailed discussions of place may be disappointed; my references to setting have a tendency to be secondary. That said, my book is semi-autobiographical (SEMI!), and I certainly could have included more of my own experiences with race and culture, including the very self-conscious efforts made by me and my black friends to reject as much as possible that wasn't considered “black,” whether it was by claiming to hate most of the music on the radio in our overwhelmingly white town, or never wanting to say a white person was attractive, because black beauty was so undervalued that it seemed wrong to add to the problem by endorsing the prevailing notions, even slightly. Some of my other formative experiences with my culture included learning about slavery and segregation, both in America and the West Indies, being sent to classes in West Indian dance, joining the Junior Afro-Canadian society consisting of my siblings and friends (to mirror the Afro-Canadian society my parents had joined), annual visits to Bermuda with my mom, and learning Jamaican folk songs from my dad. I also felt especially proud of hall of fame quarterback Warren Moon and the similarly storied hockey goalie, Grant Fuhr. Then again, was it “black” to even be aware of hockey? Or was that, too, the result of losing touch with my roots? Was it breaking down a barrier or assimilation when Arthur Mitchell founded the Dance Theater of Harlem? And if ballet is okay for black people, should Misty Copeland have ended up in a predominantly white company?

To be fair, I suspect Dr. Coulardeau might have been okay with Cecile's focus on classical music if the book had followed up a conversation about the need to incorporate music by black composers into her repertoire— something I endorse and have put into practice—with concrete examples. I admit to dropping the ball on that one; I was more interested in her character's awakening as a self-confident woman, just as I was interested in Langston's need to confront the fears that kept him bound, but although the book is already 500 pages long, a few sentences here or there would have made my novel richer. Them again, why should any black person, real or imaginary, have to define him or herself by someone else's cultural standards, which are higher, in this regard, than the bar most white people need to reach? One answer is that everything about black people has been denigrated so much that we need to affirm our identity. The thing is, we're still human, which means we're not monolithic. Will black people ever earn the right to just be, in all of our complex variations and manifestations? Or should all books feature black protagonists who speak mainly the vernacular, ideally in the inner city, during slavery or the Civil Rights era? Will melanated people always have to earn their “black card,” even if they're fictional?

Coulardeau sarcastically refers to Langston “so black...that his first girl friend is a white woman.” I put that relationship in my book is because seeing a black man with a white woman still produces a twinge in my gut, even though I realize that the importance of race has been inflated by a history of hate. If I'm honest, I must confess that I have some litmus tests of black authenticity: Clarence Thomas doesn't pass, for example, because his Supreme Court rulings and other statements have shown what looks to me like evidence of self-hatred. Still, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that every black man who gets involved with a white woman has fallen for the false notion that their pale skin makes them the biggest trophy of all. I want black men and black women to heal the deep wounds inflicted by injustice, set down the resulting baggage, and truly embrace each other. Still, it is my firm belief that we can love ourselves without climbing into a box. At least, I hope so, because the opposite of multicultural is homogeneous. Even if it were possible to retreat behind impenetrable racial and cultural fences, is that advisable? Can't I be black and still cook a damned turkey? Especially in Canada, where Thanksgiving isn't connected to its ancestral sins against aboriginal people (which certainly exist), but rather the thought that having a day off to sit down with your family and express some gratitude sounded like a good idea?

People have mentioned finishing my book and wondering what the characters did after it ended. Despite everything I just said, if I do write a sequel, I may just go into more detail regarding culture, which is something I don't always analyze deeply unless affronted. So even though I find Coulardeau's comments presumptuous, misleading, and at times completely inaccurate, they did make me think.

#blackness #book review #west indian #canadian #mutliculturalism

0 notes