#rise in racism against asians

[panicinthestudio]

“Rising Against Asian Hate:” Son of Atlanta Spa Shooting Victim Speaks Out, October 18, 2022

The horrific spa shootings that rocked Atlanta in 2021 left eight people dead -- including six Asian women -- and an Asian American community shrouded in grief and fear. A new documentary on PBS.org, "Rising Against Asian Hate," explores the story in searing detail. Executive producer Gina Kim and Robert Peterson -- whose mother was killed in the shootings -- join Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the tragedy and its aftermath.

Amanpour and Company

#amanpour and company #pbs #Rising Against Asian Hate #Gina Kim #Robert Peterson #Atlanta #2021 Atlanta spa shootings #guns #racism #bias #discrimination #objectification #violence #sexism #documentary #hate crime #USA #film #relevant #Youtube

[fatehbaz]

Hey I thought you might appreciate a heads up that the yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) has been spotted in Savannah, Georgia. 😞

Nice. Well, not nice news. But glad that you thought of me. Thank you.

(For other people who have yet to fully embrace and explore their innate love of hornets, this Vespa velutina hornet is originally from Southeast Asia. This creature is closely related to Vespa mandarinia, the creature derisively referred to in the US as "murder hornet" or "Asian giant hornet", originally from South/East Asia, which is now apparently established near in the Salish Sea region near Bellingham, Vancouver, and Nanaimo.)

Here's a look at where the giant hornets now live in North America, along with the distribution of some other large hornets which might be mistaken as Vespa manadrinia/velutina:

The map was originally published in 2022 in American Entomologist, displaying distribution range of (non-native) giant hornet; (non-native) European hornet; (native) southern yellowjacket; and (native) eastern cicada killer. The article also identifies a few few other species which might be mistaken for "murder hornets": great golden digger wasp, bald-faced hornet, German yellowjacket, red-legged cannibal fly, and pigeon horntail. (Available to read for free online; article title in the source/caption beneath the map.)

I've had many memorable encounters with large (native) bald-faced hornets in dense cedar-hemlock rainforest-y places. And coincidentally, the Pacific Northwest is also now apparently the North American home/homebase of Vespa mandarinia. So here are some other PNW wasps/hornets in comparison, from Oregon State University Extension Catalog (2022):

From 2020 research on potential dispersal of Vespa mandarinia over a couple of decades (not necessarily a good or realistic representation, not inevitable, kinda just "potential"):

Apparently Vespa mandarinia haven't yet been encountered outside of the general Vancouver area during targeted samples:

I know that you too are fond of wasps/hornets, and are aware of their popular demonization, the way that they're feared, etc. In July 2022, the Entomological Society of America put out an online resource thing that explains why they don't like the name "Asian giant hornet" for Vespa mandarinia and Vespa velutina, instead adopting "northern giant hornet" and "yellow-legged hornet" (which you called the creature, too!) because of the racialized/xenophobic implications. ("Northern Giant Hornet Common Name Toolkit" available at: entsoc.org/publications/common-names/northern-giant-hornet) They say: '"Murder hornet" unnecessarily invokes fear and violence, which impede accurate public understanding of the insect and its biology and behavior. While "Asian" on its own is a neutral descriptor, its association with a pest insect that inspires fear and is targeted for eradication may bolster anti-Asian sentiment in some people - at a time when hate crimes and discrimination against people of Asian descent in the United States are on the rise.'

Which, for me, brings to mind this recent book from Jeannie Shinozuka:

From the publisher's blurb: 'In the late nineteenth century, increasing traffic of transpacific plants, insects, and peoples raised fears of a “biological yellow peril” [...]. Over the next fifty years, these crossings transformed conceptions of race and migration, played a central role in the establishment of the US empire and its government agencies, and shaped the fields of horticulture, invasion biology, entomology, and plant pathology. [...] Shinozuka uncovers the emergence of biological nativism that fueled American imperialism and spurred anti-Asian racism that remains with us today. [...] She shows how the [...] panic about foreign species created a linguistic and conceptual arsenal for anti-immigration movements that flourished in the early twentieth century [...] that defined groups as bio-invasions to be regulated—or annihilated.'

A lot going on at that time with insects, empire, and xenophobia. In the 1890s, the British Empire was desperately searching for a way to halt malaria, and mosquitoes had just been discovered as vectors of malaria. And from Nobel prize podium lectures to popular media newspapers and academic journals, there was all kinds of talk about how "bacteria/viruses/insects are the greatest enemy of the Empire" and whatever. The US was also expanding in the Caribbean, Central America, Pacific islands towards East Asia, etc. Tropical plantations were proliferating, not just in Dutch Java or British India, but also in US administered Central America. And so insects were perceived not just as a threat to the human body of the British soldier or American administrator; insects were also a threat to profits, as insect pests threatened monoculture plantations and agriculture.

That same time period saw the US invasion of the Philippines and exports of products from the islands; the US annexation of Hawai'i, and elevating rivalry with Japan; the 1882 passage of the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act; US control of Cuba and Puerto Rico; expansion of US fruit corporations in Central America and US sugarcane plantations in Cuba/Hawai'i, where insect pests threatened plantation profits; the advent of "Yellow Peril" tropes and fear of invasion in science fiction literature; the detaining of half a million (mostly Chinese) people at the medical quarantine processing center that the US Public Health Service operated at Angel Island in San Francisco; and US insect extermination projects, mosquito control campaigns, and medical policing of local people in Cuba and the Panama Canal Zone (where US authorities detained local people for medical testing).

A lot to consider.

#thank you #:)

[newsfromstolenland]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/2-years-into-the-pandemic-anti-asian-hate-is-still-on-the-rise-in-canada-report-shows-1.6404034

Myka Jaymalin says she remembers the final straw that made her quit her customer-service job in the summer of 2020. Working in a downtown Toronto restaurant, she says she was used to one-off confrontations with some diners. But the aggression from one customer that day was different. "He told me: 'If you can't f--king speak English — if you can't understand English — then why would you even work in this industry?'" said Jaymaylin, who is now the chairperson of Anakbayan Toronto, a Filipino youth organization. Advocates say the kind of aggression Jaymalin faced is not only common for Asian people, many of whom have been working in public-facing and precarious jobs throughout the pandemic, it can escalate into violence. They've been ringing the alarm since attacks on Asians began after the first known COVID-19 cases were discovered in China, and when six Asian women were killed in a series of shootings in the Atlanta area last year.  Despite this, a new report shows incidents of anti-Asian racism in Canada are increasing. 

Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

#asks #anonymous #mine #cdnpoli #racism #anti-asian racism #xenophobia #sinophobia

[shivology]

ok so re: logan and racism (and marcia) because i’ve been having Thoughts TM rotating in my mind for a day or two but like. logan, obviously, is a very racist individual, but i think mostly in the sense that he perpetuates and weaponizes racism rather than actively, like, unironically having said bigoted beliefs (for the most part of course lmao)

in the sense that, like, he does not believe that, say, white people are inherently superior, and he knows and acknowledges that they have a leg up in the world because he’s many things but he’s not stupid. but to him, that’s not a bad thing. it’s not a good thing either. it’s just .. a Thing. it’s the way the world works. (same with misogyny and other forms of oppression. “i didn’t make the world,” he says to shiv after saying her being a woman was a minus.) 

he’s got a, like, might makes right natural selection type proto-fascistic sense of morality that prioritizes power and strength above all else.  rather than condemning systemic bigotry that he is very very very aware is real and exists, it’s like -- it is what it is. the world isn’t fair, tough luck. he’s aware that spreading racism, islamophobia, antisemitism, etc is profitable for him and therefore he will do it and he won’t feel bad because he didn’t create the world and it’s not his fault that that’s the way things are. racism and bigotry are tools and he won’t hesitate to use them if it’ll serve his interests. it’s all part of the game.

like he’s one of those people who would look at african and asian countries who have had their resources fucked to hell by colonialism and capitalism and imperialism and white supremacy, like iraq, egypt, iran, ethiopia, etc, and he wouldn’t try to downplay how much they contributed to humanity or whitewash them the way your run-of-the-mill old racist man would, but he’d also have no sympathy for their current suffering. he’d think well it’s their fault they let themselves get lazy and soft. that’s what you get. he wouldn’t downplay the crimes europeans have committed against native americans but he’d say that “they were conquered” and that’s the way the world works. oops sorry tough luck you lost. 

which brings me to: he respects people of color who, to him, “rise above” racism -- like marcia. because to him, human rights aren’t inalienable. you have to claw your way through the world to be respected and perceived as a human being but if you DO manage to do that -- then you’re one of the good ones. you deserve respect. (romanticizing suffering like a good old catholic lol) i think he feels like him and marcia are similar in the sense that they both rose above hardship -- in the sense that they’re both immigrants (obviously with VERY different experiences) who made something of themselves.

so he respects marcia in a way he doesn’t respect anyone else in the show, in a way. he doesn’t respect his kids or the pierces because they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths and he doesn’t respect poor people either because he grew up poor too and he still made something of himself so fuck that everything’s an excuse. he’s like the poster-child of someone who has personally experienced injustice (being abused as a child, living in poverty, etc) and rather than not wanting anyone else to experience these things, you’d rather everyone else did because that’s only fair. like why do YOU get to have a safe space when I didn’t? no fuck that

so like i think if one of the kids were to say something bigoted or micro-aggressive to marcia in his presence he’d be quick to be like, okay, well what do YOU do successfully. quickly. however. he wouldn’t of course actively make the environment they live in safe for her, and he WILL actively promote racism against her people because that’s what works for him, just like he didn’t take measures to keep his kids safe from the people he associates himself with.

#this turned out longer than i thought it would be lmao #does this make sense... #anyway #logan roy #marcia roy #many loganmarcia thoughts their dynamic is insane to me #also i do love marcia howeverrrr. she is very much a race traitor #obviously that doesn't mean she deserves to be subjected to bigotry #but she's a brown woman who actively chose to marry a man who literally owns fox news to serve her own personal interests #to ignore that would be reductive imo

[doubleca5t]

thoughts on differentiating sex-based vs gender-based discrimination?

this is a common terf talking point so I'm going to try to inject some nuance into this. the thing about bigotry is that it's not actually very precise. some of the most frequent victims of Islamophobic sentiment are sikhs. whenever racism against one group of asian americans is on the rise it typically spills over into bigotry against other asian americans as well. homophobia impacts not just gay men, but men who are *perceived* as gay, or even just not masculine enough.

What I mean to say by this is that, as a trans woman, whether you are perceived as a woman or an emasculated man - people are still going to be bigoted towards you. Trans women don't experience misogyny in the exact same way cis women do, but they do experience discrimination, and that is discrimination that is worth addressing because ultimately it's coming from the same place as garden variety misogyny (i.e. patriarchy)

Distinguishing between sex based vs gender based is silly because at the end of the day it's all just discrimination

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

They’ve been scared of it for decades but it still isn’t stopping them. The youth vote never worked out for the Dems even when millions of young boomers took to the streets to protest Vietnam, Nixon, and Republikkkan terror at home. Their is no grand coalition of young people, marginalized people, and recent immigrants. Pundits like Van Jones can preach this all he wants in an attempt to make it reality but it’s simply not happening, never has, and likely never will.

The Republikkkans have had great and expanding success with their simple strategy of regional separation. The push the notion that the South is inherently more free, more moral, and more patriotic. Which is bullish-t on every level. They’ve even managed to expand this into the west and mid-west while making inroads into the rural counties of the few blue states left. They keep the people poor and angry and then they make the northern and west coast Dems the villains, the scapegoats just like Hitler did. Everything northern, blue, and urban is evil because propaganda works best when oversimplified to black and white.

The red states are so heavily radicalized that their youth vote red while many of our youth don’t bother to vote. Further the Republikkkans are still drawing deeply from the affluent “Log Cabin Republicans” (LGBT) who prioritize their pocket books and own racism over their very existence. Recent immigrants voting blue hasn’t existed since the mid 1800’s yet the Republikkkans still use it as a talking point. Immigrants nearly always side with the loud mouth autocrats in the GQP because it reminds them of the “strongman” autocrats they left behind. Anyone from a recent immigrant family or community can vouch for this. The only time it’s not true is in blue states where the Dems allow good paying entry level jobs that don’t require mastery of English. Voting Republikkkan makes immigrants feel like super patriots and they think it will help them blend in easier and quicker. Even with the massive rise in anti-Asian and anti-Semitic violence those two groups still vote their pocket books. And for the life of me I’ll never understand why 1/3, and growing, of the Hispanic population votes GQP. Especially in the border states where they are treated the worse. They literally chant “send those sp-cs” back at Trump rallies and other GQP events.

The biggest, and perhaps mortal, mistake the Dems ever made was to shift away from its base of union workers to embrace every group under the sun when all those groups have spotty voting records at best. They don’t vote, don’t vote regularly, and as mentioned often vote GQP. Some may not like that and find it insensitive but it’s a truth that is overlooked by the ultra-liberal, educated elite, and the so called mainstream media. The focus should always have been on expanding union rights since they had excellent Democratic turn out. At the same time attempts should have been made to attract marginalized people. It never should have been one or the other, that was a catastrophic mistake. Biden is the first high level Dem since the 60’s to realize this mistake and is working to bring unions back.

Many of us on the left still have bought into endless attacks on unions produced by Republikkkan oligarchs who want every hindrance to profit removed regardless of the human cost. Just like so many bought into the decades of repugnant attacks against Hillary which gave us Trump and MAGA. Nearly all unions are pro-Democrat. The only unions that are pro-Republikkkan are police unions that get everything they want from local Republikkkan officials who need them as foot soldiers. There are still a handful of law enforcement unions, mainly in the north, that are pro-Dem because they realize the value of unions as a whole. Once Repubs have stamped out all the other unions they will weaken and eventually eliminate them as well.

People on our side just don’t recognize what unions do for a free society. Most know the basics of higher wages, sick leave, benefits like over-time, health insurance, protections against unjust/illegal termination, guaranteed raises, vacations (often paid), and the basic human dignity of not having to grovel at the bosses feet. Further, and this is important and overlooked, unions provide work place safety and security for marginalized people. African-Americans, LGBT, immigrants, young, women, old, religious minorities, the handicapped and infirm all have a place where they are safe to work. Most importantly union workers have built in recourses if management becomes hostile or takes unfair or prejudicial action.

Yes all institutions have faults as they are run by people and people are not infallible. But your union dues provide you with shop stewards and if necessary legal representation. You don’t get that anywhere else. No non-union company will protect you if you are discriminated against you. Workers have a contract with their union that is contractually bound to protect them. It doesn’t always work in a very small number of instances where lower level union shop stewards are corrupted by management but 99% of the time it functions as planned and goes on smoothly without us even being aware. Of course when something doesn’t work out the media blows it out of proportion leading us to think every institution is corrupt.

How many workers hate their underpaid jobs where they have no chance of advancement, wage theft, long hours, at will scheduling, abusive bosses, unsafe working conditions, and fear of termination? That’s not how it is when you have a job with a strong union. Again nothing is perfect but union work places are vital to our democracy and the protection of marginalized people who would in millions of cases unable to even find work. That’s something to stop and think about before you go off on an imaginary blue collar white union worker you believe voted for Trump. Remember you are buying into Republikkkan propaganda whenever you disparage unions.

And if you want that youth vote to turn the tide then get off your backsides and start educating the young people in your orbit before Fox News MAGAts radicalize them.

#youth vote #unions

[eretzyisrael]

by Zach Kessel

Last week, I wrote about the upcoming Palestine Writes Literature Festival, to be held at the University of Pennsylvania from September 22 to 24. Featuring as speakers noted antisemites, running the gamut from Marc Lamont Hill to Roger Waters, the festival promises to be a veritable cornucopia of hatred of Jews: calls for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the land of Israel, accusations of Jews being subhuman, insinuations that a Jewish cabal controls American media, you name it. If it’s a form of antisemitism, it’s sure to be found on Penn’s campus this weekend. I hope it’s a coincidence that the festival’s last day coincides with Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.

There’s an update to this story, and for those familiar with the rising tide of antisemitism on college campuses across the country, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Since the festival began drawing attention over the past week or so, there have been strident responses from the university’s Jewish alumni and supporters. More than 2,000 such concerned individuals signed an open letter sent to the university’s president, Liz Magill, urging her to issue a statement — without equivocating or falling into both-sides-ism, as higher-education administrators often do when they lack the courage to condemn antisemitism — “specifically denouncing the event’s platforming of known antisemitic speakers.” The letter’s authors noted that, had a university department sponsored a festival promoting anti-black or anti-Asian racism, homophobia, or any other kind of bigotry, there’s no question that Penn would immediately distance itself from and condemn the event. Of course, within the academy and progressive intelligentsia more broadly, Jews are themselves oppressors, and antisemitism isn’t a legitimate form of hatred deserving of attention.

Though the University of Pennsylvania does and should aim to foster an environment of free expression, the letter notes, “neither academic freedom nor freedom-of-speech principles prevent the university from using its own voice to speak out against antisemitism wherever and whenever it occurs, especially on campus.” The Palestine Writes organizers have a right to voice their opinions, but they do not have the right to do so on Penn’s land.

It turns out that’s too much to ask of Magill. In a statement obtained by Jewish Insider, she made perfunctory comments about how the university opposes all forms of hate including antisemitism, how Waters has been roundly condemned for his past words and actions, and how she is “personally committed more than ever to addressing antisemitism in all forms.” You’d think part of that commitment might entail disallowing such vile displays from taking place on the campus she runs. Apparently, at least in Magill’s eyes, it doesn’t. She invoked the university’s “responsibility to foster open dialogue and cultural diversity on campus.” But there’s a massive difference between open dialogue and cultural diversity and tacitly endorsing speakers who traffic in this kind of antisemitism.

And then, Thursday morning, something at once entirely predictable and yet bone-chilling for Penn’s Jewish students happened: A student at the university vandalized the school’s Hillel building. As the Daily Pennsylvanian reported, “a regular attendee” opened the building’s doors for a morning service, and the culprit entered:

“When I walked into Hillel, I noticed that the lobby was completely trashed — one of the podiums was smashed, one of the tables was smashed. There was stuff everywhere,” [University of Pennsylvania student Marc] Fishkind said. . . . “He immediately started smashing things, yelling ‘F**k the Jews’ and ‘They killed JC,’” Fishkind recounted from what he was told by someone who was there, adding that eventually, the perpetrator ran out of Hillel as the police arrived.

Make no mistake: As university president, Magill bears responsibility. By allowing the Palestine Writes Literature Festival to take place on her campus, and by allowing multiple academic departments to co-sponsor the event, she has helped foster an environment of antisemitism at Penn that empowers people like the student who vandalized the Hillel building. Magill doesn’t seem to understand that her inaction has consequences and that by building a permission structure for antisemitism, she has allowed antisemitic acts to occur.

It’s insane that we have to keep writing about events such as these. From my May 2022 piece in National Review:

Last month, several student groups signed a statement written by NYU School of Law’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter defending terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and accusing Zionists of controlling the media, a well-worn antisemitic canard. On April 26, Georgetown Law School’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter hosted Mohammed El-Kurd, an activist who has accused Israelis of harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians and of having “an unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood & land.” In recent weeks, the Rutgers chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi — a historically Jewish fraternity — faced multiple incidents of antisemitic harassment. First, activists waving Palestinian flags yelled antisemitic slurs and spat at fraternity brothers. A few days later, vandals threw eggs at AEPi’s house during the fraternity’s Holocaust Remembrance Day proceedings — the second year in a row the house was egged during Yom HaShoah. On Saturday, April 23, at Northwestern, where I am an undergraduate, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter organized a candlelight vigil and painted messages across Northwestern’s “Rock,” a boulder on campus that student organizations paint for various promotional purposes. By Tuesday morning, alongside the SJP chapter’s Instagram username, the rock bore the slogan “From the River to the Sea.”

Hatred of Jews on campus, of course, didn’t end in May 2022. Antisemitic attacks at American universities have nearly doubled in 2023, and almost 60 percent of Jewish college students in the United States have either experienced or witnessed antisemitism at their places of learning, according to an Ipsos poll. Another Ivy League school, Princeton University, has included on a humanities course syllabus the book The Right to Maim, which claims that Israelis harvest Palestinians’ organs, a variant on the time-worn “blood libel” canard.

The longer academic institutions take to actually address antisemitism on their campuses, the longer they’re allowing it to flourish. By hiding behind rote affirmations of a school’s commitment to diversity, to equity, to whatever progressive buzzwords they like to emblazon on their overpaid and underworked administrators’ doors — and by refusing to act when the time comes, like right now — university presidents like Liz Magill create the conditions in which, for instance, Hillel buildings are vandalized. I’m left with only one question: What did she think was going to happen?

#palestine writes literature festival #antisemitism #university of pennsylvania #campus antisemitism #liz magill

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Christopher F. Rufo

Published: Dec 18, 2023

Harvard president Claudine Gay has been embroiled in controversy for minimizing Hamas terrorism and plagiarizing material in her academic work on race. Both scandals have discredited her presidency, but neither should come as a surprise. Throughout Gay’s career at Harvard—as professor, dean, and president—racialist ideology has driven her scholarship, administrative priorities, and rise through the institution.

Over the course of her career, Gay quietly built a “diversity” empire that influenced every facet of university life. Between 2018 and the summer of 2023, as the dean of the largest faculty on campus, Gay oversaw the university’s racially discriminatory admissions program, which the Supreme Court found unconstitutional. Even after the court issued its ruling earlier this year, Gay said that it was a “hard day” and defended the university’s policies, which were deemed discriminatory against Asian and white applicants. Gay promised to comply with the letter of the law, while remaining “steadfast” in her commitment to producing “diversity”—a not-so-subtle message that Harvard would find a way, as the University of California has done, to evade the law in practice.

While affirmative action has been a longstanding practice at Harvard, other programs led by Gay were new. Following the death of George Floyd in 2020, Gay commissioned a Task Force on Visual Culture and Signage, which released a series of recommendations the following year for engaging in the “historical reckoning with racial injustice.” The recommendations included a mandate to change “spaces whose visual culture is dominated by homogenous portraiture of white men.” In particular, the report maintained, administrators should “refresh” the walls of Annenberg Hall, which “prominently display a series of 23 portraits, none of [which] depict women, and all but three of [which] depict white men.” Who were these white men and why were they honored in the first place? The report does not say—their race and sex alone provided sufficient justification for their banishment.

In 2022, Gay implemented an initiative at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for “denaming” any “space, program, or other entity” deemed racist by the faculty and administration. According to the report, commissioned by then-president Lawrence Bacow, these decisions would be “based on the perception that a namesake’s actions or beliefs were ‘abhorrent’ in the context of current values.” In other words, Harvard would use the standards of present-day social-justice activism to pass judgment on men who lived hundreds of years prior—at best, an ahistorical and deeply ambiguous method. As part of this project, Gay sent an email to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences community soliciting “requests for denaming,” promising to address the situation “through the lens of reckoning.” Since then, the university has grappled with denaming multiple buildings, including Winthrop House, named after John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his great grandson, also John Winthrop, a Harvard professor and president.

As president, Gay leads a sprawling DEI bureaucracy—officially, the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging—that seeks to influence how students speak, think, and behave in relation to race. Though the university deleted nearly all DEI materials from its website following President Gay’s disastrous congressional testimony related to the Hamas terror attack, I have recovered some of these documents through an Internet archive. Harvard’s DEI administrators encourage students to internalize the basic narrative of critical race theory: America is a nation defined by “systemic racism,” “police brutality,” “white supremacist violence,” and the “weaponization of whiteness.” In another resource, students were invited to “unpack” their “white privilege” and “male privilege,” and to consider their “white fragility,” which stems from “the privilege that accrues to white people living in a society that protects and insulates them from race-based stress.”

What is one to make of Gay’s record as a whole? She is hardly a “scholar’s scholar,” as the university magazine tried to portray her, having published, according to her curriculum vitae, just 11 academic papers—nearly half of which include plagiarized material. Nor is she a competent administrator, having botched the response to rampant anti-Semitism on campus and, by one estimate, lost the university more than $1 billion in donations. But she plays one role perfectly: the dutiful racialist, skilled at the manipulation of guilt, shame, and obligation in service of institutional power. For instance, she wrote last year in a message to the campus announcing a report on Harvard’s historical connection to slavery: “We have been excluded and denigrated for centuries from an institution where we now work, study, and lead. Our presence here should not feel so extraordinary. But now we see it was anything but inevitable.”

The irony: Gay was, in fact, somewhat inevitable. In the long season of racial guilt and animus that followed George Floyd’s death, the university was desperate to recruit a “first,” as Gay put it in her inaugural address, and disrupt the university’s nearly 400 years of whiteness. As Harvard is now learning, however, naming as president someone who sees race and sex not as incidental human attributes but as ideological constructions that must be imposed on the institution comes with a significant downside.  Consequently, Harvard’s trustees find themselves in a bind: they hired Gay in large part for her identity and cannot fire her for the same reason. They seem resigned to muddling through the “racial reckoning,” however long it lasts and whatever further damage it inflicts on America’s oldest university.

#Christopher F. Rufo #Christopher Rufo #Claudine Gay #DEI hire #diversity hire #DEI bureaucracy #Harvard #academic corruption #diversity equity and inclusion #diversity #equity #inclusion #religion is a mental illness

[merrikstryfe]

[...]As if this is the first time in history that a war or catastrophe has provoked bigotry. But this is always the case. Just as Islamophobia rose after 9/11, and just as anti-Asian hate rose with the onset of the pandemic, so antisemitism is rising now. One could even say the same about anti-German and anti-Japanese stereotypes in the 1940s.  None of this is to excuse these spikes in bigotry, or to deny that the bigotry exists and is dangerous. It is only to note that the most obvious explanation for the current eruption is not a grand meta-narrative of American or European history, but rage at an ongoing war in which Israel’s conduct has received widespread international condemnation.

I really appreciate this disambiguation between "there is more antisemitism showing after October 7" and "there is an ancient conspiracy of hatred against the Jews that is reemerging". Yes, racism; no, grand organized principle of jew-hate.

#antisemitism

[marta-bee]

Entering (or Leaving) the Garden

Let's talk about Anathema and Adam's first meeting in Good Omens (the book). I mentioned it when talking about Pepper earlier, but as I said, this really deserves its own post.

Adam has come from reenacting his own version of the Spanish Inquisition. He doesn't actually see what's so wrong with witches, in spite of God being "dead set against" it, and the whole inquisition thing seems more like a bit of fun to fill a summer day. But still, Adam's coming away from that feeling like he was just getting into a good rhythm that would fix this witches problem properly and so be for the greater good (though he's not exactly clear on why or how), when his parents punish him for ruining Pepper's sister's dress, and he gets a bad case of the grumblies.

This is just the kind of emotional landscape that gets people to lash out at an easy target. I'm thinking American nativism and racism where people lose their jobs and attack the immigrant they perceive as having stole it, rather than the true culprits. Or the hate crimes against Asian-Americans during COVID though you're Asian-connected neighbors of course had absolutely nothing to do with it, even if a few Chinese scientists did (which, you know, is far from proven). You can probably think of other situations like that. The point is, Adam feels wronged and a the woman he thinks is responsible for that wronging should make a mighty enticing target.

She is one, of course (or nearly), but she doesn't look the part:

"They just better not come running to me when ole Picky is turned into a frog, that's all," muttered Adam.

It was at this point that two facts dawned on him. One was that his disconsolate footsteps had led him past Jasmine Cottage. The other was that someone was crying.

Adam was a soft touch for tears. He hesitated a moment, and then cautiously peered over the hedge.

To Anathema, sitting in a deck chair and halfway through a packet of Kleenex, it looked like the rise of a small, dishevelled sun.

Adam doubted that she was a witch. Adam had a very clear mental picture of a witch. The Youngs restricted themselves to the only possible choice amongst the better class of Sunday newspaper, and so a hundred years of enlightened occultism had passed Adam by. She didn't have a hooked nose or warts, and she was young . . . well, quite young. That was good enough for him.

For her part, Anathema is there looking for exactly who Adam is. She's meant to... what, diffuse some threat about him? Bear witness? Make sure a prophecy is fulfilled in some way? I'm not 100% clear, actually, but she's probably meant to find him. She's in tears because she's lost the Book that would point to him. And there he is, peeking over the hedge at her. But he's also not what she's been primed to suspect, even of the neighborhood ne'er-do-well.

"Hallo," he said, unslouching.

She blew her nose and stared at him.

What was looking over the hedge should be described at this point. What Anathema saw was, she said later, something like a prepubescent Greek god. Or maybe a Biblical illustration, one which showed muscular angels doing some righteous smiting. It was a face that didn't belong in the twentieth century. It was thatched with golden curls which glowed. Michelangelo should have sculpted it.

He probably would not have included the battered sneakers, frayed jeans, or grubby T-shirt, though. "Who're you?" she said.

"I'm Adam Young," said Adam. "I live just down the lane."

"Oh. Yes, I've heard of you," said Anathema, dabbing at her eyes. Adam preened. "Mrs. Henderson said I was to be sure to keep an eye out for you," she went on. "I'm well known around here," said Adam.

"She said you were born to hang," said Anathema.

Adam grinned. Notoriety wasn't as good as fame, but was heaps better than obscurity.

"She said you were the worst of the lot of Them," said Anathema, looking a little more cheerful.

Adam nodded.

"She said, 'You watch out for Them, Miss, they're nothing but a pack of ringleaders. That young Adam's full of the Old Adam,' " she said.

 Side-note: Huzzah for Neil and Terry, on that "worst of the lot of Them" line. A++ wordplay, that...

Also: "Full of the Old Adam"? If only; better that than the anti-Adam, really.

But getting back to my main point, I can't imagine Anathema being turned off by him being a hellion. Antichrist, sure, but punk with a reputation of getting the local busybodies' panties in a twist? That seems just the type she'd gravitate toward. He's more sympathetic than even that, though, isn't he? "Like a prepubescent Greek god. Or maybe a Biblical illustration.", indeed.

So not only is she primed to sympathize with him for stirring shit up, he's genuinely charming and beautiful and just plain young. I wonder if Greasy Johnson had come bumbling down the lane, with all his heft that suggests bully even as he seems pretty kind-hearted and gentle for an eleven-year-old boy, how she would have reacted. He seems to fit the stereotype of what Anathema's looking for much more easily. I don't think she would have disliked him for that, but probably also much less intrigued by and friendly toward him. Adam is the Bart Simpson to Greasy's Nelson Muntz, and we can't help but love him for it. At least I can't, and I suspect Anathema couldn't either.

Odd how our expectations and assumptions so easily work against us.

 .......

The really interesting question for me is if reality's better or worse for this chance meeting (as they say in Bree). If it had been Greasy who was the antichrist, if they'd been polite enough or even frigid and gone about their day, if it hadn't been Adam who'd been charming and considerate and been invited in. Because something really quite dangerous happens that afternoon beyond Anathema being comforted (to a point): Adam's not only educated a bit about things like the dangers of nuclear power and the lack of space ships in such facilities *g*, his imagination is also awakened a bit.

An eleven-year-old boy playing inquisitor the same way he might play pirate, dunking his friend's kid sister in the water, Monty Python-style, and asking if thyme is a sufficiently witchy herb is pretty cute. Having the actual antichrist think the Spanish Inquisition is all a game – you know, the thing that expressed such terrible feats of imagination it sent Crowley to drinking – then turn around and awaken said imagination by exposing him tl all sorts of knowledge he'd been too hemmed in by his parents' ordinariness to be aware of before?

That's just terrifying; Someone save us all.

#good omens #book omens #anathema device #adam young #marta rereads good omens

[twst-discourse-bot]

An Open Message to The TWST Fandom

If you have seen this post before, this is a repost. The previous version was not showing up in the tags.

This post is for anyone who has seen the posts of, interacted with, or felt harassed/made uncomfortable by the blog fandom4lesbians:

You are engaging in a bad faith argument with a racist, homophobic, TERF whose only interest is driving a wedge in the fans by starting pointless discourse using buzzwords and skin-deep morals to support their irrational words.

I have seen people already begin to put the pieces together as to who this person actually is and I wanted to come forward and present everything I felt obligated to dig up. I have evidence and connections that this person, “Marie” who claims to be a black trans lesbian aged around 16-18, is the one behind several genshin and twst accounts that have been seen in the tags before.

The Former Accounts (chronological order):

genshin-lumine

yuunatsukuyomiinwonderland

mult1fandoml3sbian

fandom4lesbians (current and most recently created)

Unfortunately, because I had not considered that I would ever need to make this post, I do not have as many screenshots as I would like, but please read what I have to say and draw your own conclusions. My goal is not to throw some overzealous teen to the wolves, it is to get rid of a nasty person who has made it their hobby to harass TWST and genshin fans. That being said, I am not in the genshin fandom so I do not know the full extent of what this person has done there, but I will mention what I know for sure.

If you’re wondering who I am, the answer is literally nobody. I am a lurker who is sick and tired of bigoted idiots taking over fandom spaces and making others uncomfortable, I just so happened to have some physical evidence against this one. I am also an adult, so I will attempt to remain calm and mature throughout this post, but please forgive me if tension rise a bit.

I will also potentially be making additional posts if more things come up, but I will not make any promises.

Evidence to Follow:

1. genshin-lumine and racism/homophobia

approx. 1-2 months ago, this blog popped up for me in the TWST tag, they had a long list of TWST OCs (all of which were female and darker skinned). nothing suspicious there, until

they made several posts claiming that--in addition to Leona, Ruggie, and Jack-- Kalim and Jamil (characters who are known to be middle eastern and even south east asian inspired) were also black because (paraphrase) “there is no way a character with skin that dark couldn’t be black”

furthermore, they made claims that shipping two male characters together was fetishizing mlm... but has no problem with wlw ships? this is where the TERF claim comes in, it’s nothing explicitly “man hating” but it’s not subtle either and the behavior continues in the future

all of this occurred in the span of a couple days, and people rightfully messaged them explaining that what they were doing and saying was wrong (i was one of them and gave them the benefit of the doubt, but quickly saw that was pointless), but the user only doubled down and refused to listen

i think at this point people also started going after their OCs, calling them boring, Mary Sues, stupid, etc. and that seemed to get a bigger reaction, but nothing major yet

i’m guessing enough people had gotten sick of them and were flooding their inbox with messages so they deleted. to start fresh.

2. yuunatsukuyomiinwonderland; Lumine 2.0

this blog started out pretty inoffensively, but something caught my eye as soon as i saw their post in the TWST tag. they made an OC (female, darkskinned) named Yuuna Tsukuyomi using the TWST chibi picrew--like many others have done, nothing wrong with it--but what stood out was the description. the wording and construction of the post was nearly identical to those from the lumine account. so i got suspicious immediately

once again people began messaging them, saying mainly that a non-Japanese person naming a non-Japanese character after an important Shinto god was not a good look, and again this person refused to listen, saying that it was their right to do what they wanted with their character

but people knew something was up, myself included, and after the circus that was genshin-lumine, i wasn’t being nice anymore and messaged this person in no uncertain terms that we knew who they were and to fuck off, we didn’t want them there

so they deleted, again. but guess what? something interesting happened when i was looking through my browser history for evidence that i wasn’t going crazy:

and this is when i knew that i had something. moving on.

3. mult1fandoml3sbian: the Return of Yuuna

now at this point, i thought it was over and was proven wrong. this account was essentially Yuuna Tsukuyomi but with a reskin. instead it was Yuri (i think) Amaterasu. again, same language, same chibi picrew, same problems. furthermore, the time between the creation, or at least awakening, of these accounts is too coincidental. genshin-lumine deleted and then soon after yuuna pops up, then yuuna deletes and around one week later this one comes out with a near identical blog just different name

and the problems start once more. i believe this is the point where they began receiving a lot of explicit anon hate, mainly racism and homophobic things which were... not pleasant to read by any stretch and i don’t condone anything that those anons sent. you are no better than her, you are equally bad if not worse. but these messages were brushed off with short, “zingy” responses, one-liners really, or some form of “that’s not nice”, despite the really gross things that were being said. and the traffic of these posts didn’t slow or stop, the user was seemingly responding to every one they received

so i doubt the total validity of those messages, but i will not outright say the user sent them to their own account bc i don’t know anything for sure

but, time passed and this blog was deleted as well. then, less than 3 days later...

4. fandom4lesbians, the Most Recent BS

here is when i lost all faith that there was a god.

it was really the same cycle on repeat, but this time they hit it big in the genshin community. the blog is still up at this point and refuses to stop so i recommend looking right at the source to see what exactly they are doing and what they received.

to summarize, they made inflammatory comments about two newly revealed female genshin characters being in a relationship and condemned people that shipped them with male characters. immediately afterwards they received a slew of vitriolic and disgusting messages to their inbox about their identity and race. however, my current theory is that they started out sending less offensive things to themselves but attracted other bad people (genshin is full of gross weirdos) that thought they were real and jumped down her throat with even worse comments.

but then the traffic stopped for a peaceful day or two, and then started up again full force and now they are spamming the TWST tag with their fem vs masc MC garbage

and many other prominent users have received messages in their inbox asking the exact same version of “what do you think of fem!MC in TWST anime?” literal copy and paste

and to my great joy, no one gave them the time of day, even when poked further by additional anons telling them to answer the question seriously. clearly that was not exactly the reaction they wanted. long live the Shrimp!

also, remember Boycott Ghost Marriage? that was this clown and plays further into my TERF claims

5. Conclusion

is anything in this post enough to be considered hardcore evidence in a court of law? no probably not, but i hope your critical thinking skills are developed enough to see my point

these four accounts all cropped up one right after the other, they were all genshin and TWST related, they all had something to say regarding the fandom and how they treated female characters/made bigoted comments towards minority groups/have the exact same habits and writing style in their posts

another thing i noticed is that they all reblogged posts from an account called damnfandomproblems as part of their first few posts, just another suspicious thing to add to the pile

6. What do YOU need to do?

ignore them, block them, report them. if you’re brave enough, go to their blog and tell them to go away, but whatever you do, don’t stake too much brain power on it.

and for the love of god, don’t be racist, homophobic, etc. to counter their BS

best case, they’re a troll who needs their IP banned. worst case, they actual believe the idiocy they’re spreading and aren’t going to stop spamming the tag until someone doxxes them or something (don’t do that, that’s illegal)

if anyone has further evidence of this person acting a fool, i will have my inbox open and welcome discussion

#twisted wonderland #twst #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #genshin impact #genshin

[richincolor]

Crystal's Favorite 2023 Books

This year there were a lot of excellent books that came my way. Here are the ones that were the most memorable and are the most likely to be re-reads in the future.

Rez Ball by Byron Graves Heartdrum [My Review]

These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team—even though he can’t help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident.

When Jaxon’s former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his dream of playing in the NBA, no matter how much the odds are stacked against him.

But stepping into his brother’s shoes as a star player means that Tre can’t mess up. Not on the court, not at school, and not with his new friend, gamer Khiana, who he is definitely not falling in love with.

After decades of rez teams almost making it, Tre needs to take his team to state. Because if he can live up to Jaxon’s dreams, their story isn’t over yet.

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley Henry Holt and Company [My Review]

Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is – the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won’t ever take her far from home, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.

In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot – will not – stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.

Sometimes, the truth shouldn’t stay buried.

Gloria Buenrostro is Not My Girlfriend by Brandon Hoàng Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) [My Review]

Gary Võ is one of the few Vietnamese kids in his school and has been shy for as long as he can remember—being ignored and excluded by his classmates comes with the territory. So when the most popular guy in his grade offers Gary the opportunity to break into his inner circle, Gary jumps at the chance. All he needs to do is steal the prized possession of the most beautiful and untouchable girl they know—Gloria Buenrostro.

But as Gary gets to know Gloria, he’s taken in by her authenticity and genuine interest in who he really is. Soon, they’re best friends. Being part of the “in crowd” has always been Gary’s dream, but as he comes closer to achieving infamy, he risks losing the first person who recognizes his true self. Gary must consider if any amount of popularity is worth losing a true friend.

Throwback by Maurene Goo Zando Young Readers [My Review]

Back to the Future meets The Joy Luck Club in this YA contemporary romance about a Korean American girl sent back to the ’90s to (reluctantly) help her teenage mom win Homecoming Queen.

Being a first-generation Asian American immigrant is hard. You know what’s harder? Being the daughter of one. Samantha Kang has never gotten along with her mother, Priscilla—and has never understood her bougie-nightmare, John Hughes high school expectations. After a huge fight between them, Sam is desperate to move forward—but instead, finds herself thrown back. Way back.

To her shock, Sam finds herself back in high school . . . in the ’90s . . . with a 17-year-old Priscilla. Now this Gen Z girl must try to fit into an analog world. She’s got the fashion down, but everything else is baffling. What is “microfiche”? What’s with the casual racism and misogyny? And why does it feel like Priscilla is someone she could actually be . . . friends with?

Sam’s blast to the past has her finding the right romance in the wrong time while questioning everything she thought she knew about her mom . . . and herself. Will Sam figure out what she needs to do to fix things for her mom so that she can go back to a time she understands? Brimming with heart and humor, Maurene Goo’s time-travel romance asks big questions about what exactly one inherits and loses in the immigrant experience.

Reggie & Delilah by Elise Bryant Harper Collins [My Review]

Delilah always keeps her messy, gooey insides hidden behind a wall of shrugs and yeah, whatevers. She goes with the flow—which is how she ends up singing in her friends’ punk band as a favor, even though she’d prefer to hide at the merch table.

Reggie is a D&D Dungeon Master and self-declared Blerd. He spends his free time leading quests and writing essays critiquing the game under a pseudonym, keeping it all under wraps from his disapproving family.

These two, who have practically nothing in common, meet for the first time on New Year’s Eve. And then again on Valentine’s Day. And then again on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s almost like the universe is pushing them together for a reason.

Delilah wishes she were more like Reggie—open about what she likes and who she is, even if it’s not cool. Except . . . it’s all a front. Reggie is just role-playing someone confident. The kind of guy who could be with a girl like Delilah.

As their holiday meetings continue, the two begin to fall for each other. But what happens once they realize they’ve each fallen for a version of the other that doesn’t really exist?

#young adult books

[a-deadly-serenade]

nocturne review, ramblings

obvs spoilers for the show down below.

so, i'm gonna be real with y'all; i dont think i would have watched this if not for one of my mutuals spilling the beans about alucard making an appearance 💀 s4 was ok and a fine conclusion to the og castlevania that started this animated franchise, but i dont think i will ever get over the absolute fumble and frankly, insulting way they wrapped up s3. even s4 had its cringe moments, like lenore getting a peaceful sendoff and carmilla getting to kill herself. but, i digress. i was going into nocturne with an already negative mindset and that may have made me more critical of the show. can u blame me though? lmao

i had seen a few clips and screenshots on twitter when they dropped the first 3 eps early and... they only helped solidify my decision to remain skeptical of the staff's writing capabilities. shit was already a little hazy and wishy-washy with their portrayal of isaac in s2 and how they treated hector thruought the show (not to mention the two asian-coded characters in s3). let's just say, the netflix castlevania team doesnt have the greatest track record when it comes to writing poc characters. so, when i saw screengrabs just outright stating that this show was going to deal with historically accurate racism? hm.

obvs as a white woman, i can only go so far on this criticism of the writing, but i dont really understand why they needed to include this? the comparisons and allegory of freedom from indentured servitude to the french revolution, was very weak and bare bones at best. you can keep the motif of the church existing on exploitation and blood of the people-- a whole cross section of the world was involved in the crusades, which is the priests & his entourages whole deal--but, why couldnt annette just be a witch? why did this "historical accuracy" need to get involved with the time period? bcuz the french revolution was name dropped? your main villain is a hungarian countess from the 16th century that made a pact with an EGYPTIAN goddess to become all powerful. like.

and also..... why the FUCK are vampires getting involved with the intercontinental slave trade bro??? 😭 theyre immortal beings that have seen the rise and fall of empires and can do whatever tf they want and go wherever tf they want and they choose to..... own a plantation? give af abut the economy? with selling goods??? okkkkk. also, this line of dialogue is insane to me:

you cant have a central theme of your story be standing up against the oppressors and then make said oppressors fantastical monsters. what kills me is that they've delved into the monstrosity of humanity in s1 and s2, and yet, when you bring in one of the most monstrous things humanity has ever done in its history for the sake of historical accuracy, you turn the very perpetrators into something mythical, and evil that the common folk had no chance of ever defeating even if they tried. its just overall, very messy and they certainly were not the creative team to try and tackle something like this.

speaking of, the writing, again, it definitely left something to be desired. there are moments that are good, don't get me wrong. episode 6 is a particular favorite of mine, shining through with its wonderful character moments b/w annette's soul searching with her ancestors, richter and juste's heart to heart, and olrox's confessions to mizrak. tera's sacrifice to ensure maria's safety is also really well done, as well as maria's final confrontation with her father in the church. however, these were fewer and farther between than i would have liked. a lot of the scenes that played out just fine, were ultimately sullied by this series' incessant need to insert swearing into every other sentence. its something that bothered me nearing the end of s4 especially, and i've just grown tired of it. it honestly takes me out of the scene to constantly hear fuck thrown out every 2 seconds for literally... no reason. i promise y'all can write meaningful and impactful dialogue without having your characters swear lmao

the writing itself is what unfortunately makes the first half of the show kind of drag a bit. the story doesn't really know what it wants to do. none of these new characters are really given time to breathe and be really fleshed out, bcuz every time things settle down and we're given the chance to learn more about their motivations, its like they're almost scared they'll lose your attention and any down time is immediately followed up with an intense action sequence. which, dont get me wrong, if theres one thing they dont disappoint with--its the action. but, i dont think that was ever up for debate to begin with. however, i believe that the characters really suffer bcuz of this. if you've never played the games, which, i believe most people tuning in to watch these series never have, you would have no idea who maria or richter are, and, i really don't think they were given enough time to be fleshed out. half the time, richter's dialogue just ends up being naive, walmart trevor belmont sarcastic one-liners and poor maria ping-pongs b/w the blandest, generic, wonderbread toutings of 'revolution' or calling richter a dick, wanker, or anything in b/w. episode 6, one of the better episodes as mentioned previously, is where we really get to see some actual growth around richter especially. there were moments where his trauma could have been further explored earlier, but they kind of got shoved to the wayside in favor of dragging out the interworking bw all the villains. which.....

if i'm gonna talk about the villains. my initial thoughts were that nocturne was going to be a one-and-done, standalone series with its own self contained story that would be wrapped up in these 8 episodes. i was wrong. and i really dont know how they're going to keep this story going. erzsebet is already a very weak and uninteresting and, honestly, confusing ? villain? for more than half of the series, she's talked about as the mysterious and all powerful Messiah and theyre gathering all these sacrifices for her to bring her back and create an army of night creatures. why is she considered powerful? bcause she made a pact with Sekhmet, an egyptian goddess. why did she do this? who knows! why does she have such a devoted cult of loyal followers when she hasnt done anything but kill a lot of people? again, who knows. why did maria's father think that a VAMPIRE would keep him in cahoots during this whole plan and not immediately fuck him over once she got what she wanted...? who fucking knows. olrox is the most interesting of the villains but even he isnt fully explored. the motivations are just not really explained very well and the buildup to erzsebet's arrival was so sudden that i literally thought i missed an entire episode. one minute, shes hiding in the shadows and the next ? waltzing in on a golden chariot and being heralded as the people's savior?? so damn messy and honestly? i really could not have cared less about her. which is insane to say, bcuz shes literally based off of a real countess who's case and life were a special interest of mine. i just... why an EGYPTIAN goddess?? shes from HUNGARY. were there no goddesses in europe to pull from she could have made a pact with? idk man it just makes no damn sense.

i am definitely more than a little peeved that this wasn't even the complete story, bcuz they did such a poor job establishing erzsebet as a villain, that i really dont give af what crazy shit they come up with to extend the story. you show her being a big badass in the very last episode. ok, you as an audience member, are immediately shown why dracula is so feared within the first 10 minutes of the first episode. and all of that wasnt even HIM fighting!!! the worst thing i've seen miss countess bathory do over here is summon a crazy orb and turn into a furry. like, where is the story going to go from here? they fight tera? save edouard and have a night creature alliance? make maria or alucard (yes, i'll get to him) summon the portal again? which btw... machine from HELL? im not even gonna touch that can of worms. somehow bring olrox back to.....? help kill bathory? idfk

and man...... i was hoping against hope that when i found out alucard was going to make an appearance, that it was just going to be some neat little cameo at the v end of the series after the main story had concluded. a little nod, a little treat to the audience that the next series would be encompassing the events of symphony of the night. maybe we'd even get a depiction of maria and richter when theyre older, i dont know, anything but throwing him in there as an overpowered hail mary to save the day. we couldnt just let these new characters figure it out and triumph in their own way? we had to drag him into this, now? i cant even tell you how disappointed i was when i saw that sword pierce drolta. ME! the resident alucard fan since i was like mf elementary school!!! ugh.

i think this is it for me and netflix castlevania lmao im a grumpy old man and miss when it was mainly fun easter eggs to the games, like how they brought in juste or how olrox turns into a big green monster and has an attack that sends flying skulls your way, or the REMIX of RICHTER'S THEME!!! but its just gotten so silly and the writing hasnt gotten any better..... from now on, im going to simply stick to the games that made me fall in love with this series in the first place & let this be the last time i ever feel the need to bitch about new 'netflixvania' content.

#the agony of wanting to talk about castlevania content with ppl and a majority only going to be familiar w/ the show #spoilers #this is v long but. it's all my feelings #if any one else wants to chat about this show feel free :) #always down to help host a free bitching session

[davekat-sucks]

Honestly the rhetoric of “Japan isn’t a perfect place” is so hollow at this point because of how obvious Japan’s societal problems are. Yes, Japan does have low birth rates, yes Japan has a harsh and unforgiving work culture, yes Japan does not have a society that reaches out to or discusses mental health of its population, creating a drive towards the growing hikikomori culture where you just stay inside your house all day and ROT. And finally, yeah many Japanese people do not like immigrants, immigration, or foreigners. This is a mix of European tourists being inconsiderate of their culture (it’s getting so bad tourists are getting banned from some districts of Japan for repeatedly taking pictures of geishas even though there are signs with visual clues of stick figures taking pictures of a geisha with a BIG CIRCLE WITH A SLASH THROUGH IT and this also applies to even simple stuff like ignoring the painted rows for getting on trains in a filed line, and a lot of little cultural divisions that you gotta learn before stepping into Asia’s biggest cultural exporter.

Of course, it’s not just the tourists, Japan also hates immigrants mostly because of the continuous cloud of Japanese nationalism that remains in the nation even after the war, which at best preserves landmarks and iconography of old imperial Japan (the naval flag hasn’t changed since 1868, even though the rising sun flag is now associated by Americans, many Chinese mainlanders, and Southeast Asians as a flag of oppression and war crimes since WWII, unless your Thailand, because Japan let Thailand keep their king and even join the Axis powers as an independent state) and at worst racism against Koreans and Chinese people that denies the terror at unit 731 and the massacre of Nanking.

Finally a lot of societal pros and cons of Japan come from 2 things:

1. America is Japan’e sugar daddy, it raised the country from rubble after WWII and created an economic miracle that modernized it so fast that by the 1980s it was developmentally ahead of countries like Italy and France.

2. Japan is dominated by one party since WWII and it only lost that majority for about 4 years after the economic crisis in 2008. It was Shinzo Abe that got the party’s grip on Japan, and economic state, back in the groove.

So Japan is a complex society with many people, a long history, complex politics (did you know Japan is one of the only countries in the global north to have a communist party represented in its parliament?) and it has problems, very human, and some of it does stem from the free-market Conservative politics of the country, and some of it was practices and cultural norms translated to the modern day.

The issue is the phrase “Japan ain’t a paradise ya know” does not address any of this, it more or less just attacks a superficial belief that people who like anime and complain about “wokeness” in western media like anime because anime generally does not explore or address social movements or political philosophy that deals with LGBTQ rights, racism, economic inequality, social justice, or political theory compared to modern american media which has integrated many more openly queer main characters and usually fights a villain who is a megalomaniac aristocrat who wants to get rid of some “other” to return society to “the good old days” and take power as this “great man” which must do what the unwashed masses could not stand up to. The assumption is since anime, and generally in genres like slice of life and shonen (and even beyond the scope of anime, tokusatsu) does not cover topic of modern political and social climate, it’s because Japan doesn’t have to deal with these issues, and is to the anime viewer, a harmonious, enriched, and bountiful society where there’s no crime, no poverty, and everyone is proud to be Japanese and accepts their place in society no matter how trivial their job or position in their community is.

The thing is: NO

Many popular anime and cartoons in Japan can cover modern social issues or political philosophy, it’s just that not all of it is going to get so popular that it gets dubbed or shipped to translation publishers like Crunchyroll or Viz media. The other thing is some Japanese media can cover older or more personal struggles in their works, it can get popular, and that’s alright! Not every piece of media that avoids talking about modern issues is anti-woke! Sometimes a fine story is a fun break from reality, a way to ease your stress from a day at work.

I think when people say “Japan isn’t a paradise you think it is” I think they’re saying that Japan has active movements that fight for more modern political causes like LGBTQ rights and economic reform, and that inevitably, they will win. Some courts in Japan are already considering same-sex marriage to be a right. That’s great.

The thing is, what the nu-fan is also saying is that the pressure of the American audience, and the growing progressive movement in Japan will reform the production and distribution of Japanese media that will introduce a new wave of authors, writers, and even animators who will be more woke than any previous generation of Japanese artists that preceded them.

And when Japan’s media landscape goes woke, where will you turn to to “escape the nu-fans” South Korea?

As if there’ll be 2 Koreas within the next decade.

🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵

Then there's Western companies that are trying to ask JP creators to change, edit, and censor their works in order to fit the standards for Western audiences. If they don't try to persuade them, they do it in more subtle ways through localization without their knowledge. And they will take that advantage that the creator will be fine with it because most don't understand English or Western culture. Sites like Pixiv that is limiting US and UK NSFW content because they don't wish to change the rules for other countries for a site that was exclusively made for Japan. It's why people are starting to accept AI translations as a new way to translate anime/manga/video games over localizers like Crunchyroll. I also think there is a difference in addressing Japanese's political and society issues over policing their media and having to alter it in order to make a quick buck. It's just as bad as Disney removing one gay reference since it isn't part of the big plot to get dem Chinese bux. At least stuff like Apex Legends is having some balls to not LGBT+ shit for Saudi Arabia release without fear of losing money or being killed.

#fandom #fandoms #Western fandom #Eastern fandom

[beardedmrbean]

I testified Thursday against the City Council Fair Chance for Housing Act, my second time in Council Chambers. The first was in May 2019 when I spoke personally and passionately about protecting New York City’s specialized high schools.

The bill, also known as Int. 632, is another City Council measure designed to protect lawbreakers at the expense of the law-abiding. It would prohibit criminal background checks on prospective tenants and buyers of residential housing.

After testifying, I left City Hall. It wasn’t until hours later that I heard the racist response to my testimony from Douglas Powell, who spoke on behalf of city-funded nonprofit Vocal-NY. He and his organization want individuals such as Powell, who has a criminal record and is a level 2 registered sex offender, to be able to access housing without criminal background checks.

His testimony laid out his criminal-justice experience and his lived experience of anti-black discrimination at Asian stores — culminating in a racist attack on the Asian community where he lives. In his three-minute tirade, he called Queens’ Rego Park the most racist neighborhood because it is majority Asian. “It’s not their neighborhood — they from China, Hong Kong,” he said. “We from New York.” 

Convicted sex offender spews anti-Asian slurs during NYC Council meeting — and pols do nothing to stop him

This anti-Asian, perpetual-foreigner, “You don’t belong here” rhetoric is dangerous hate speech that incites violence. Unprovoked attacks on Asian New Yorkers are on the rise.

Powell’s racist rant was delivered in the presence of three councilmembers without interruption or admonishment. Committee chair Nantasha Williams even thanked Powell for his testimony. It’s as if his anti-Asian hate speech in the chamber was unremarkable white noise. It took hours, after online pressure from constituents, for those present to issue generic disapproval statements, retweeting other electeds’ condemnation, and say “both sides” share blame for systemic racism.

Like many Asian Americans, I am a property owner and small landlord. When I graduated, my parents encouraged me to live at home, pay off my debt and save to buy a property. I lived at home for a few years and paid off my student loans as quickly as I could. Decades later, I bought my first investment property. I rented mostly to young men and women at the start of their careers. As a landlord, I treated my tenants the way I wanted to be treated: fairly and responsively. I’m fortunate real-estate brokers and condo management could conduct criminal and credit checks, not only for my benefit but for the safety of neighbors in the building.

Powell spewed hateful, anti-Asian rhetoric at the council meeting.Stephen Yang

Asian Americans have the highest rate of home ownership in the city, 42%. The stability of owning property as a means of building wealth is deeply rooted in Asian culture. New York’s pro-tenant policies, especially the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, have resulted in heartbreaking stories from small-property landlords. The laws, intended to help tenants, some of whom lost jobs during COVID, disproportionately hurt immigrant landlords. Not only have they not been paid rent for three years; some living in multi-family units are terrorized by tenants who know they can’t evict. Many Asian property owners are working class, and their modest rental income helps pay for the mortgage, property taxes and unit upkeep.

While bad tenants existed before this bill, it would make things worse. Private-property owners should not bear the burden of unknowingly renting to convicted arsonists and murderers and letting them live next door to New Yorkers who want a safe place after a long day braving our unpredictable city streets and subways. We worry about higher insurance, liability in endangering other tenants and frivolous lawsuits in tenant-friendly courts. That becomes a cost-benefit question for owners — whether it’s worth it to rent with little profit.

Like most landlords, I don’t live in the building I rent, but I do worry about the tenants I rent to. I think of the kindhearted young Asian professional who pleaded with me to let her have a Hurricane Sandy rescue dog. I worry about the wheelchair-bound young man grateful to find independence in living in an accessible building and appreciative of me letting him install an automatic door opener for his convenience. I want them to have the peace of mind that when they return to their small haven in the city, they will be safe, among neighbors who won’t pose a risk to them.

The fight to save specialized high schools that brought me to council the first time galvanized many Asian voters who had never been involved in city politics before. I am one of those newly politicized voters. This year, I co-founded Asian Wave Alliance to make sure that Asian-American New Yorkers’ needs are not ignored by the very councilmembers who sat quietly and listened to Powell’s racist attacks.

This time, I went to council to convince the Committee on Human and Civil Rights and the bill’s sponsors that the Fair Chance for Housing Act is not “fair” at all to small landlords and already-existing tenants. Getting rid of reasonable safeguards like criminal background checks is not “fair” to the city’s law-abiding citizens and will put people in danger. True fairness requires listening to all New Yorkers and prioritizing safety and transparency. 

#nunyas news

[realjaysumlin]

Timeline of Systemic Racism Against AAPI | Rise Up for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders - Spotlight at Stanford

When people came to our lands with no Visa's, uninvited, unprovoked and yet wrote laws for themselves and murdered innocent people in cold blood now tells us who can come and who cannot albeit our own land.

The entire world have a common enemy and it's white people and yet Black Indigenous People globally and Africans are the most hated. Why do we allow evil people a free pass while targeting innocent people who never done anything to anyone?

Every genocide that the so call white people have committed and seen as the good people when we have proof of their hate against everyone who isn't white based on the evidence of the laws they wrote for themselves and damned everyone else who isn't considered as white.

The concentration camps against the Japanese People, the anti Chinese and Pacific Islanders immigration denial on all colonized continents globally. The enslavement of everyone including the so call white people too, but they called it indentured servitude.

The people who call themselves Jewish where throughout history were murdered in cold blood still calls themselves white even though they are the target of white supremacy, but filmed Black Indigenous People globally in the most negative and demeaning ways possible.

One would think people will unite and confront those people who harmed us, not the ones who have not done anything to you in modern times.

#black love #black positivity #black africans #jewish #black history #indigenous asian #global black on black love #global black solidarity