#interracial adoption

[everydayesterday]

the CBC hit job on buffy sainte-marie is truly baffling. the claim is that, because her white parents' names are on her birth certificate, and because she has a younger sister from that same family, who is very much lily-white, she is not legitimately a member of the piapot first nation.

let me use a personal example showing the idiocy of this determination by the CBC. my son is black. once the adoption process went through, he was issued a new birth certificate showing my ex-wife and I as his legal birth parents. we are both white. it is quite obvious that we are not his birth parents, but that's what the birth certificate says (the original birth certificate showing his black parentage is sealed and unavailable except through court order; that how it works).

are you seeing where I'm going with this?

while no one would ever suggest that my ex and I are claiming our son is white, many in the first nations are "white-passing" (you can decide for yourself if you think buffy "passes").

she has always claimed that she doesn't know with certainty her true ancestry, and ultimately understood that she was adopted as an infant, tracing that back to saskatchewan (buffy says this is because her adoptive mother ultimately straight-up told her she was adopted from an unwed mother somewhere north of the piapot first nation).

the CBC also points to inconsistencies in how buffy's heritage was documented in the press, though they're not really inconsistencies. their investigation states that some referred to her as cree (the piapot nation is cree), algonquin (the anishinaabe language group that extends into the canadian prairies includes algonquin and oji-cree), or half-mi'kmaq (her adoptive mother, while white-passing, did actually claim connection to the mi'kmaq, so even that isn't inconsistent if that was before she knew about being adopted from saskatchewan).

claiming that her adoptive white parents *must* be her birth parents is erasure of that [possible/probable/whatever] first nations heritage; it's pure and simple racism (and if you're shocked by racism against the aboriginal community in canada, you're ignoring the country's entire history and present-day situation).

that she has a younger sister or a second cousin who know nothing of a possible connection to the piapot first nation doesn't really mean a damn thing—if buffy was raised as white, then that's all that her younger sister would've known; you can't blame buffy for her sister being kept in the dark.

all that the CBC investigation does is confirm what buffy sainte-marie has always said, which is that she doesn't know with certainty who her birth parents are, and provide yet another example of the mess that interracial adoptees face in figuring out their cultural heritage.

[also, regardless of her birth, she was adopted as an adult into the piapot first nation 60 years ago (they didn't have a problem doing so), which legitimates her status. she has spent her adult life connecting to that first nation and working to support aboriginal recognition and rights.]

[EDIT: Yes, it could be a big lie. I didn't feel that the evidence proved anything beyond a doubt, and to my knowledge her parents never actually denied her supposed Cree ancestry—Albert Santamaria died in 1998; Winifred in 2010. The information about the birth certificate hit home with me as an adoptive parent. I wouldn't understand her motivations if it is all a lie.]

#buffy sainte-marie #interracial adoption

[3-2-whump]

Friend needs cheering up?! *busts in your window with your favorite food and drinks*

So gush about your favorite whump tropes!!! 👀

-- @whumperofworlds

Thank you 🥹 you brought my favorites I see!

*slurping and munching noises*

So, my favorite whump tropes…

Well, I love an unequal power dynamic. Especially when it comes to the NSFW side of things. Rarely is consent asked in these circumstances, and if it is, does the disadvantaged party really have any choice but to say yes? Do they have the freedom to say no?

I love bondage because I am a human being with eyes and a working blood circulatory system. Idk how to fully explain it, but when I saw Aladdin at the impressionable age of …what, like four?… that was it for me. Just didn’t know what it was called or that I didn’t have to be embarrassed about it until semi-recently.

I also love culture whump, particularly as it pertains to language barriers. I haven’t published anything on this blog about it yet, but in my personal copy of Whumpee and Whumper’s stories (Khaled and Thomas), they can’t understand each other. One has limited English comprehension, the other doesn’t even know what language his pet is speaking. Of course, this changes as the story goes on, Khaled becomes fluent and forgets his natal tongue (with some encouragement), and that makes it all the harder on him when he’s eventually rescued and returned to his family.

Hang on to your hats, everyone, shit’s about to get real under the cut

My love of culture whump and language barriers probably stems from my long-underaddressed adoption trauma. I only just realized as I began seriously writing whump this last year that I also had my culture and my mother tongue ripped away from me without my consent, and, like my Whumpee, I may never be able to fully reclaim it in a way I would have if I had grown up within its framework my entire life. (No wonder I always write about it!) That is why, when my Whumpee recovers, he is never the same person he was before he was taken. But he is doing better than he was, even though his tongue stumbles clumsily around words his siblings could say in their sleep. He is happy enough. And that is enough.

Wow, making me emotional again. But it feels good to kind of lore dump/give backstory about the author now and again. And I do feel kinda better. So thanks!

#whump asks #whump tropes #whump community #deep dive into authors backstory #culture whump #language barrier whump #loss of culture #adoption trauma #interracial adoption #intercultural adoption #writing is cheaper than therapy

[harper]

I’m a little hurt by how shocked everyone was about it being confirmed that Darwin is black. There are so many mentions of Darwin being an inter-species pet fish turned brother and son, (interracial foster-to-adoption) INCLUDING two whole episodes devoted to his origins PLUS an entire episode of the rest of the family (who raised him) doing offensive and confused “fish cultured things” in an attempt to make him feel less distanced from his “culture” only to find out that’s never what he wanted and was always a watterson before a fish at heart.

I’m honestly sad, as an interracially adopted person, that this VERY CLEAR AND WELL-EXECUTED character, with MANY tasteful jokes and nods to his origins went over so many peoples radar. Like I see SO many people on social media who “just love the found family trope” that like, how did this go over you head? Adoption is the real life legal for, of it.

Darwin isn’t just black representation he is ALSO this first well executed adoptee representation in children’s media I think I’ve ever seen as someone who’s been watching cartoons since 1994.

#the amazing world of gumball #gumball fanart #darwin #darwin watterson #gumball watterson #adoption #interracial adoption #foster children #fostering #non traditional family

[icedsodapop]

The Michael Oher conservatorship by the Tuohys really wasnt much of a surprise given that there were previous high profile cases of White guardians exploiting their adopted kids of color for content and money. Anyone remember Huxley Stauffer, the adopted Chinese boy with autism who got "re-homed", and the Hart children, the six Black and Brown kids who were abused, neglected and killed by their White foster mothers?

#interracial adoption #transracial adoption #white supremacy #colonialism #michael oher

[tonechkag]

Some better alternatives to adoption & foster care.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRg1uUpX/

Most mothers want to keep their children but they don't have the resources to do so. The child's families need to be prioritized above the wishes of entitled hopeful adoptive parents.

If you want to learn more, there are many adoptees on Tiktok, Instagram & Twitter who share their stories & educate freely. #adopteevoices is a popular tag we use, go follow it & be open to learning from us. If your ego cannot handle us telling you the truth & showing the reality of the adoption & foster industry's, you have no place in it as a parent.

#adoptee voices #international adoptee #foster care #anti adoption #adoption is cultural genocide #adoption is human trafficking #adoption industry #foster child #kindship #legal guardianship #transnational adoptee #interracial adoptee #stop buying babies #tiktok #adoption trauma #child abuse #child abduction

[boricuacherry-blog]

This gay man in Texas bought a black baby and he's a convicted felon and recovering drug addict of over ten years...he and his partner are both convicted felons (violent felonies)

And posting the newborn all over the place

He posted a video on TikTok saying he hoped "this reaches Black TikTok" and that he has a black baby and needs help brushing her hair.

He added, "I have this little brush. I have something from Shea Moisture. I really don't know what to use, so any black parents or anyone who knows what to do with my childrens hair please help me in the comments."

He also photographed himself in the delivery room with the birth mother, a 23 year old black woman.

#will carroll #baby #interracial #texas #adoption

[escapaldi]

Re, the latest US Supreme Court idiocy: I wish that every time a Bible-twisting cosplayer was handed the right to deny others theirs that the word Christian was not used to describe them. They are frankly incapable of even attempting to follow one of the most basic rules of Christianity (love thy neighbor) and are honestly just using the intangibility of faith to lie their way into the ability to be an asshole without repercussions. Not only that, but they are extremely un-American for wanting to enshrine these false beliefs into law and the Constitution, which increasingly blurs the line between Church and State that they only seem to bring up when they’re upset that they need to meet on Zoom or else they’re at significantly higher risk of catching a plague they refuse to be vaccinated against as though someone did not make that vaccine with their God-given talents. The Lord gave us people of all walks of life so that we may truly understand Him and instead people spit on it. Why would He give us LGBT+ folks if we weren’t meant to strive to figure out how to care for them and let them thrive in a society of love? They can love God just as much as any cishet person--possibly even more than, if you’ll allow--and to theoretically deny someone something as inconsequential as a wedding website? For being gay? It makes me want to SCREAM.

The fact this is coming on the tail end of Pride is not lost on anyone. I’m sure there’s plenty in my archdiocese who would call me a bad or cafeteria Catholic for thinking that LGBT+ folks shouldn’t be denied service based on “freedom of religion” or “freedom of speech”. Well, guess what? Not only is the Lord disappointed in how you treat other humans He made in His image, but the Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves because of how severely you misinterpreted those freedoms. It means the State can’t throw you in jail for being a Christian or a communist dissenter, ya fuckwit, not that you have free reign to be an asshole and not get called on it. And you refer to yourself as an Originalist? Ha! If you were an Originalist, then you’d know that the “Men” in “all Men are created equal” means “people” and that you’d have to acknowledge that women are part of “Men”. Because it’s capitalized. Like the difference between God and god. LGBT+ people are part of the race of Men. So are our Jewish and Islamic cousins in Abrahamic faith. So are our neighbors of varying other faiths and traditions. People who look different, talk different, experience things different, they are still Men. As in the synonym for human. And they’re all equal in their pursuit for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, which is something some people like to deny. A lot. Because they’re libertarian and hands-off-government unless it’s about people who don’t look and act and sound like them being given the same rights and treatment. They claim to be about defending families and traditional values and it’s, like, you’re pissing on real families. A family can be anything. By claiming to defend families and traditional values, what is being offered? Safe places and nurturing environments? No--it’s hate, pure and simple, against anything that doesn’t look like Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best.

So please, when reading the headlines today and in the future about the latest travesty that was allowed to happen because a sycophant stacked the court, remember that the greatest lie that mainstream media is knowingly spreading right now--and I’m a huge believer in mainstream press integrity--is that these people are Christians. Because they’re not. Jesus was a cool cat and this was not what He would have wanted. People doing bad shit in His name did not stop at the Crusades, but is a real and genuine problem within the Church and outside of it. If we can see it in sex abuse scandals and money laundering, then we should be able to see it when it comes to people denying the humanity and existence of their fellow Man. It’s there whenever people laud the denial of health care, the denial of legal rights, the denial of history... those are not Christians. Those are little more than weird LARPers attracted to power and the ability to say their word is God’s. Well, guess now’s the time to say that even the famous “papal infallibility” clause of Catholicism has loopholes, because as much as I like the Pope in general, he’s still a weird little old dude. He might have the clearest picture from the Lord, but he’s still human, and therefore is still capable of fcking shit up with a bad turn of phrase or reluctance to go all the way (and honestly, I’m not entirely unconvinced that he’s been avoiding an anti-pope all this time, because I feel like he’s been toeing that line from Day One and am surprised nothing’s been triggered yet). That’s why the conservative rightwing Catholics at least think they’re in the clear despite the fact that even with all his shortcomings, the current Pope sort of has one of the clearest heads in a long while, so oops too bad now stop shitting on the Pope.

In related news, Frankie’s supposed to be due to replace my archbishop sooner rather than later due to an age cap and I hope he can get one not as... tolerant of Christian nationalism and hate towards Men in there. That’d be nice to have, you know, LGBT+ outreach that isn’t underground.

#Nehs the Catholic #this just upsets me greatly on a lot of levels #because A) twisting God's name to be an asshole; B) THIS WAS A THEORETICAL CASE; #C) this is just 'small government for whitewashed cultural Christians only' bullshit and that's fcking bullshit; #and D) this is just another stepping stone down into a hellscape that puts us back generations #because this is license to shit on gay and interracial marriage and adoptions #this is license to ban abortions and limit contraception #this is license to lie about history by whitewashing the pain people went through and the beautiful tapestry of those who made now possible

[abnormalapathy]

More of you should be giving Link locs

#dndads #dungeons and daddies #lincoln liwilson #link liwilson #or not make him black #interracial adoption makes me iffy actually #closed adoptions in general make me iffy but interracial ones make me really iffy #ramblés

[lgbtq-archives]

#lgbtq #gay community #gay over 60 #mature gay men #older gay couple #interracial marriage #interracial couple #adoption #adopting #africa #gay couples #medical school #Youtube

[liberaljane]

Women's Not So Distant History

This #WomensHistoryMonth, let's not forget how many of our rights were only won in recent decades, and weren’t acquired by asking nicely and waiting. We need to fight for our rights. Here's are a few examples:

📍 Before 1974's Fair Credit Opportunity Act made it illegal for financial institutions to discriminate against applicants' gender, banks could refuse women a credit card. Women won the right to open a bank account in the 1960s, but many banks still refused without a husband’s signature. This allowed men to continue to have control over women’s bank accounts. Unmarried women were often refused service by financial institutions entirely.

📍 Before 1977, sexual harassment was not considered a legal offense. That changed when a woman brought her boss to court after she refused his sexual advances and was fired. The court stated that her termination violated the 1974 Civil Rights Act, which made employment discrimination illegal.⚖️

📍 In 1969, California became the first state to pass legislation to allow no-fault divorce. Before then, divorce could only be obtained if a woman could prove that her husband had committed serious faults such as adultery. 💍By 1977, nine states had adopted no-fault divorce laws, and by late 1983, every state had but two. The last, New York, adopted a law in 2010.

📍In 1967, Kathrine Switzer, entered the Boston Marathon under the name "K.V. Switzer." At the time, the Amateur Athletics Union didn't allow women. Once discovered, staff tried to remove Switzer from the race, but she finished. AAU did not formally accept women until fall 1971.

📍 In 1972, Lillian Garland, a receptionist at a California bank, went on unpaid leave to have a baby and when she returned, her position was filled. Her lawsuit led to 1978's Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which found that discriminating against pregnant people is unlawful

📍 It wasn’t until 2016 that gay marriage was legal in all 50 states. Previously, laws varied by state, and while many states allowed for civil unions for same-sex couples, it created a separate but equal standard. In 2008, California was the first state to achieve marriage equality, only to reverse that right following a ballot initiative later that year. 

📍In 2018, Utah and Idaho were the last two states that lacked clear legislation protecting chest or breast feeding parents from obscenity laws. At the time, an Idaho congressman complained women would, "whip it out and do it anywhere,"

📍 In 1973, the Supreme Court affirmed the right to safe legal abortion in Roe v. Wade. At the time of the decision, nearly all states outlawed abortion with few exceptions. In 1965, illegal abortions made up one-sixth of all pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths. Unfortunately after years of abortion restrictions and bans, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022. Since then, 14 states have fully banned care, and another 7 severely restrict it – leaving most of the south and midwest without access. 

📍 Before 1973, women were not able to serve on a jury in all 50 states. However, this varied by state: Utah was the first state to allow women to serve jury duty in 1898. Though, by 1927, only 19 states allowed women to serve jury duty. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave women the right to serve on federal juries, though it wasn't until 1973 that all 50 states passed similar legislation

📍 Before 1988, women were unable to get a business loan on their own. The Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988 allowed women to get loans without a male co-signer and removed other barriers to women in business. The number of women-owned businesses increased by 31 times in the last four decades. 

Free download

📍 Before 1965, married women had no right to birth control. In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that banning the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy.

📍 Before 1967, interracial couples didn’t have the right to marry. In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court found that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. In 2000, Alabama was the last State to remove its anti-miscegenation laws from the books.

📍 Before 1972, unmarried women didn’t have the right to birth control. While married couples gained the right in 1967, it wasn’t until Eisenstadt v. Baird seven years later, that the Supreme Court affirmed the right to contraception for unmarried people.

📍 In 1974, the last “Ugly Laws” were repealed in Chicago. “Ugly Laws” allowed the police to arrest and jail people with visible disabilities for being seen in public. People charged with ugly laws were either charged a fine or held in jail. ‘Ugly Laws’ were a part of the late 19th century Victorian Era poor laws. 

📍 In 1976, Hawaii was the last state to lift requirements that a woman take her husband’s last name.  If a woman didn’t take her husband’s last name, employers could refuse to issue her payroll and she could be barred from voting. 

📍 It wasn’t until 1993 that marital assault became a crime in all 50 states. Historically, intercourse within marriage was regarded as a “right” of spouses. Before 1974, in all fifty U.S. states, men had legal immunity for assaults their wives. Oklahoma and North Carolina were the last to change the law in 1993.

📍  In 1990, the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) – most comprehensive disability rights legislation in U.S. history – was passed. The ADA protected disabled people from employment discrimination. Previously, an employer could refuse to hire someone just because of their disability.

📍 Before 1993, women weren’t allowed to wear pants on the Senate floor. That changed when Sen. Moseley Braun (D-IL), & Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) wore trousers - shocking the male-dominated Senate. Their fashion statement ultimately led to the dress code being clarified to allow women to wear pants. 

📍 Emergency contraception (Plan B) wasn't approved by the FDA until 1998. While many can get emergency contraception at their local drugstore, back then it required a prescription. In 2013, the FDA removed age limits & allowed retailers to stock it directly on the shelf (although many don’t).

📍  In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the Supreme Court ruled that anti-cohabitation laws were unconstitutional. Sometimes referred to as the ‘'Living in Sin' statute, anti-cohabitation laws criminalize living with a partner if the couple is unmarried. Today, Mississippi still has laws on its books against cohabitation. 

#art #feminism #women's history #women's history month #iwd2024 #international women's day #herstory #educational #graphics #history #70s #80s #rights #women's rights #human rights

[a-queer-crip-writes]

There was something forever youthful about Grandma Audrey - a kind of vitality in her snapping blue eyes and her restless movements, all the way to the tips of her white-speckled red hair. Shi could look at her and see precisely what Grandma Bea had seen in the pastel sketches Papa had on the walls of his bedroom, even though those had been drawn more than thirty years ago. Every line of her shone through the page, as vital and alive then as now.

Shi could only just remember Grandma Bea. She had died of ovarian cancer when Shi was four, in the autumn not long after she started school, and all that really stayed with her was the memory of the bitter smell of medication and the faint, sweet hint of cannabis as she sat colouring on the knitted blanket on Grandma Bea’s bed, watching the leaves fall outside with her. She knew Papa missed her with an aching grief that had never really gone away, but all his thousands of stories about her bizarrely made her feel further away than closer; she felt almost like a beloved and well-known fictional character to Shi, like Jane Eyre or the Doctor.

But Shi adored Grandma Audrey. She had always been able to talk to her in a way she couldn’t talk to anyone else in the family; even in her very bad patches, when she thought the Russians were tapping her phone or could hear spirits singing to her in the rain, Shi had never been frightened. She wouldn’t come and live in the big house with them permanently, but she always ended up in their spare room after she came out of her stays in hospital. Shi always covered the walls in pictures for her so that anyone who came out of them when she was adjusting to her new dosages would be allies, and safe. Grandma Audrey always took the pictures down carefully and took them home with her when she was better. She had them in a big plastic storage box under her bed still, though her new meds meant that her bad patches were rarely so bad, these days.

They went for a walk by the canal and talked about everything that was going on; Grandma Audrey’s pottery classes and Shi’s school projects, Grandma Audrey’s dodgy knee and her new physio who had given her exercises for it, and Shi’s incessant eczema that no cream would keeping working for for above four months; the tsunami in Indonesia Grandma Audrey’s synagogue were raising disaster relief funds for and the one-act play Shi way writing for a school competition, even though she wasn’t sure she dared to turn it in. Grandma Audrey’s face was much rounder than Papa’s long one, but her snapping blue eyes were set in it in the exact same way as his softer greyish ones. A rogue lock of her soft wavy hair fell into her eyes in the exact way his did; her eyes crinkled at the corners in the exact same way when she smiled, and she bit her lip in thought in the same way Shi saw Papa do every morning over the news on his tablet.

Grandma Audrey was written through him in a thousand little ways. Shi would never have those from Papa because he and Dad had adopted her when she was eight months old. The first page of her baby album was the first picture they had ever seen of her, sent from the orphanage on the Chinese border near Korea, and the second was one of them both holding her taken by Grandma Bea outside the airport; their smiles splitting their faces apart while she stared at the camera in outrage, spiky black hair sticking up everywhere.

She didn’t remember any of that, of course. It felt more fictional than Grandma Bea did; all her memories were of Grenville; secure in not only Papa and Daddy’s love, but that of their entire family. The big house; autumn rains and spring flowers; family parties at Christmas and Hanukkah; Grandma Bea’s pictures; Papa’s poetry and illustrations. That was her life; her truth, who she was. But she wouldn’t tell anyone but Grandma Audrey that it hurt sometimes that she couldn’t look in the mirror and see any of that legacy written in the topography of her face.

She said it suddenly, in the middle of telling a story about her friend Vera’s cat having had kittens, as they were quietly chucking fallen flowers from the cherry trees into the canal and watching them float away. Grandma Audrey kept watching the little floating blossoms for a long moment afterwards before looking back at her.

“You know that, even though I was the one who gave birth to him, your Papa loved Bea more than he loves me, right?”

There was no rancour in her voice; it was just gentle and blunt.

“Grandma! You know Papa loves you!”

“He does, yes. But he adored Bea. He misses her all the time. He does love me. He’s even pretty fond of me these days. But he loved Bea the way he loves you, sweetheart.”

She smiled; wryly, a little sadly.

“I can’t blame him. I loved her that way too. Same way I love you, little one. Sometimes genes aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”

She put an arm around Shi’s shoulders and squeezed her tight. Something loosened in Shi’s chest that she hadn’t realised was tight until the moment, and the two of them watched the pale pink blossoms float gently away, out into the current, and finally out of sight.

#interracial adoption fiction #queer fiction #adoption fiction #queer families #sometimes genes aren’t all they’re cracked up to be

[vhaerath]

i think there are assorted woke yanks (affectionate) on this site who make too many assumptions about what canadian people are taught about regarding our racial stratification

this is about wildbow btw. my education on the marginalisation of the indigenous population of this country was not vast, but i was about indigenous culture and the axis of said marginalisation by a bunch of actual native people. however i went to a tiny, hippie high school, and spent a lot of my time being abusively parented by internet leftism, and i am a humanities student so i probably know a lot more about this shit than the average white canadian does.

given wildbow's age i fully believe that education on various horrible shit that happened to native people was not very deep in his school years. he is a self-admitted hermit as well and while his ignorance is only partially an excuse, it is simply ignorance and not active malice

#saw a post by shakertwelve about 'shouldn't wb know The Implications about interracial adoption' #and it is with a heavy heart i must say that the average canadian is blissfully ignorant about how deep the racism rabbit hole goes #buttered poast

[tonechkag]

"International adoption rose and fell precipitously. The number of children adopted across borders roughly tripled between 1992 and 2004, then collapsed almost as quickly.

It’s a simple story of supply and demand—which is the problem.

The supply of orphans should not rise to meet demand. But that is exactly what happens when the size of the industry grows large enough to attract ambitious entrepreneurs. The reason the number of children sent to the West for adoption rose so fast was not because orphanages got better at finding orphans. Instead, in order to meet demand, they were making orphans.

In country after country, international adoption followed the same pattern. A place would become known as a source of children; the number of orphanages in that country would rise; scandals would follow involving baby-selling and kidnapping; the government would ban or tightly regulate international adoption, choking off the supply, and American child-seekers would move on to the next country."

- The Rise and Fall of International Adoption by Helen Andrews

You can read the rest here

**Note: this is written on The American Conservative website. It's not my personal go-to type website because I'm not a conservative, the article is really well written & I had to share it.**

#adoption industry #anti adoption #anti surrogacy #womens rights #adoptee voices #international adoptee #interracial adoptee #reproductive rights #pro choice #nobody's entitled to someone elses child #adoption trauma #adoptee #russian adoptee #holy queue #children's rights #parent's rights #u.n. #violation of human rights

[camifornilla]

I love remembering that like all of the big big superheroes are Jewish (by way of Jewish creators creating characters imbued with Jewish attributes). Like I just cut myself off from analyzing Superman’s behavioral upbringing when my brain went and said “Clark’s Christian heritage— wait,,,, no,,, he’s Jewish.” Then I went and thought about all the superheroes that modern writers write as Christian for some reason, that are fundamentally Not Christian. It felt good to imagine them in that way.

#I’m not jewish so imma cease speaking on that #it’s funny that Americans always wanna hide away all the ethnic groups #while the poster boy of The American Way is a Jewish Immigrant #it’s the classic story #(Tho I choose to see it as more of a Parents sent you to live with relatives for a better life) #(and not White Family adopted a child from far away lands to give them a better life) #(cuz that level of interracial adoption gives me the ick from the colonizer vibes it gives off)

[blueiight]

theres this quote running around from jacob anderson where he talks about how historically black people have been removed from period dramas and how, as suggested by the interviewer (w/ blueiight embellishment ofc), the very few times black charas would show up in these period pieces theyd be side characters delegated to a raceblind narratively incoherent plot to placate an audience ashamed with / of the nuances of blackness. i rly like how he said louis’s character represents both a ‘black and very human story about a vampire… [Black people] do not usually have the opportunity to play such complex and fluent characters’. i think that brings to heart a lot of why this show has my heart, as an armchair historian and r.n. (dont ask what that stands for). u racebent characters in a way that coheres, situate ur black characters in a specific context, and the story never deludes us into thinking the mere existence of an interracial relationship is enough to end racism. in e2 louis literally says “fledgling sounds like slave, dont call me that” and e3 starts with louis telling lestat the history of dismembering runaway enslaved ppl & placing their bodies on the gates of of jackson square.. in his initiation to vampirism, louis is moved from the historically Black creole treme area he grew up in & is placed into lestat’s townhome in the very white, french, old quarter. vampirism as hes initiated into is a loving, powerful, cruel, and isolating existence for louis. bc of vampirism he is able to kill a racist person and not be lynched for it, hes able to echo the historical dismemberment on the alderman by placing his body on the st louis cathedral, but he is unable to kill racist groups & systems that initiate race riots. his connection to claudia in s1 is not so much by the oedipal, but by both their connection as lestat’s fledglings and as Black [creole] people placed in a part of the city largely alien to them both. this connection can be broken down even further. louis saw claudia as his joychild of sorts, ‘[his] redemption’ for his 5 years of pimping but a big part of her tragedy is that a child being made into a vampire cannot redeem anyone, much less redeem an individual from what was a historical inevitability. claudia is adopted into such a stature that she wouldve otherwise never reached by virtue of being made a vampire, but even then that is conditional. claudia is rendered inert from being anyone’s ‘wife’ forever trapped in the confines of immaturity as a ‘daughter’, only hoping at best to be louis’s ‘sister’ and isnt that resonant to bw.. she’s selectively infantilized both a child ‘meddling in the affairs of her parents’ , ungrateful, arrogant, and adultified - presumed powerful enough to ‘poison louis against [lestat]’ , taking on the role of louis’s ‘knight in vengeful white black’ .. the response lestat has to claudia is characterized by him continuing the cycle of abuse he once faced toward her and with a black claudia who was once a poor girl now adopted into this immortal luxury it takes on a racialized element. “bach is beyond you” and claudia bites back with “yes this french music is hmm. not made for these mongrel ears”. the absence of metaphor is striking!! literally the fact that this show does not shy away from the era its set in is why its so good.

#yn. #iwtv #louis de pointe du lac #claudia #family from hell #Wait its more than 5 years. whats 5 (mortal) + 7(vampire) years

[verdantmeadows]

So, in case you haven't heard...

Penny, from Scarlet and Violet is officially related to both Peony and Peonia (and, well, Rose too, since he'd be her uncle)! Peony is her father, and Peonia is her sister.

For those unaware, this is Peony.

And this is Peonia!

The woman in this image is (presumably) their mother (unless Penny is a half-sibling or adopted, which I don't think is the case).

And let me just say, this makes me so, so happy, seeing this visual/genetic diversity in a family.

So many people are completely ignorant to how genetics and biracial people can exist and have their genes expressed. Two siblings from a biracial couple, such as a black and white person, can look totally different. One could have curly hair and one could have straight! One could be super light-skinned and the other dark-skinned! Two kids from two parents doesn't mean that they necessarily just get a "mix" of how they both look.

Seeing this represented makes me so happy. I really hope more people realize just how different siblings from interracial couples can look. I really hope people don't erase this aspect of Penny's character, or think that she doesn't look Black enough or enough like a POC.

For a real life example, here are a pair of biracial twins!

(Lucy and Maria Aylmer)

So, basically, the point of this post is this:

Penny is Peonia's sister and Peony's daughter! This was my headcanon for a while, considering her name is Penny and based on Peony, but seeing it confirmed makes me so happy. I want this post to end on the note to inform people that biracial people can look like this. Biracial people can pass completely as white. White-passing biracial people can have dark-skinned parents and family members. Biracial people don't owe you passing as their ethnicity and the ethnicity/race of their family.

Please embrace this aspect of Penny and learn what being biracial can look like! Understand, acknowledge, and accept how biracial people can look! I've already seen people frustrated that Penny doesn't look "Black enough" or saying that her design makes no sense, or that she couldn't possibly be Peony's daughter, which is already a huge issue for REAL LIFE BLACK PEOPLE, who are told this!!! Even if you don't realize it, these thoughts and ideas ARE racist to have. How you view people when they're not real can often be indicative of how you treat them when they ARE real!

I hope that if you didn't already know these things, that you don't feel bad about it, and instead come away with new knowledge and understanding!

Edit: Also she could just be adopted? I meant to say that in this post and forgot. Like, adoption is a thing. Like, we know that Bede was an orphan and all... (I however don't think she was adopted based on her visual similarities)

Additional edit: I'm not trying to imply that their family is Black, either—I mentioned Black biracial families as an example, and also mentioned it at the end because I specifically made this post in response to people saying Penny "isn't black enough" and directing their racism towards Black biracial families. In all likelihood, their family is probably implied to be the Pokémon equivalent of Indian.

Other additional edit: Dialogue in game

Penny also frequently refers to her dad's behaviors that align with how Peony behaves

#book of kells #penny #peony #peonia #indigo disk spoilers #pokemon #gen 9 #scarlet and violet #sv #scarvio #swsh #indigo disk #gen 8 #sword and shield