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snowviolettwhite · 3 months

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If a marginalized person from marginalized group is dealing with bigotry and very clearly is upset and just needs to let out their emotions and vent don't try to debate with them, even if you think you are being being civil. I don't have the energy to debate with people that antisemitism is just as bad all the other forms of oppression and bigotry while then being told Jewish people have it better than other all groups.

I will block you, do not tone police me. I come on tumblr to express myself and enjoy and share my hobbies and escape, not to become more stressed. This is my page if I want to vent I will vent.

Someone said to me that Jewish are the most represented minority but the smallest minority, so it would not make sense to hire Jewish actors. It would be too hard to find them. There more Jewish roles than Jewish actors, which is laughable. I wonder why Jewish people are one of the smallest minority could it be because of an event that happen less than hundred years ago and the increase in hate crimes and over 2000 years of prosecution.

There are barely any explicit Jewish roles that are not stereotypes or about the super religious or about the holocaust and most of them that are are played by Italian actors. When actually Jewish actors play these roles they deal with fetishization and are called unconventionally attractive and often play the comedic characters.

Look the Andy Samberg and Timothee Chalamet both great actor, extremely talented and attractive. Andy Samberg is a cutie pie in my opinion.

People have had audacity to say to me that 'you might not to be getting cast for the roles you actually want because you're unconventionally attractive,' despite the fact in my mother was considered the most beautiful girl in her Jewish community, I look so much like her and people from my family's community are constantly trying to convince my parents to set me up with their sons.

Also, calling someone unconventionally attractive is not a commitment.

People are constantly talking about the privilege in masking or hiding certain parts of yourself to avoid possible harm and how not all Jewish people look stereotypical Jewish but have you thought about Jewish people who do look stereotypical and how saying these things are affecting them.

Their physical traits are being presented as ugly and saying they can not hide for safety.

I have had strangers come up to me and ask me if I am Jewish because I look Jewish. It is mostly well meaning older Christine people who are trying to be friendly and start a conversation and like learning about different types of people, so I don't really mind.

But if people whose families have been who have been in the U.S for generations can tell someone is Jewish just by looking at them then but about people who actually want to cause harm to Jewish people.

I as a Jewish person and actor was calling out erasing of Jewish stories stories, misrepresentation, underrepresented and double standards in film, television and theatre.

Non-Jewish actors still to this day wear prosthetic noses and wigs to play Jewish roles. You can look it up, there are loads of articles about non-Jewish actors doing this. Look up what Bradley Cooper did. He knew Jake Gyllenhaal, a Jewish actor had been planning for years on producing and acting in a biopic about Leonard Bernstein a Jewish man and bought the rights before he could and now in the film Bradley Cooper is wearing a prosthetic nose.

Comic books and Broadway were built off the handwork of Jewish Americans and Jewish Immigrants. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is changing canonical Jewish characters from the comic book and completely erasing their Jewishness and sometimes even turning them into Christians. They are barely any Jewish actors or writers involved in the MCU, if any.

Characters and very clearly show plays and musical that are about being Jewish sometimes don't even have one Jewish actor in the cast. I read a article a while back about a Jewish actress being the only Jewish person cast in a production Fiddler On The Roof. The makeup artist wanted to give her a wig to make her hair look coarser, thicker and darker and wanted to give her a prosthetic nose to appear more Jewish. When the actress told them she was actually Jewish they proceed to tell her she was too pretty to be Jewish.

In the book Red, White & Royal Blue Nora is Jewish. For the film they hired a Christian actress who from what I heard pressured to the creators to change Nora to Christian because she did not feel comfortable playing a Jewish character and because she is a devout Christian. If they want to have black actress they could hire an actual Jewish black actress. If I was hired to play a character who did not align with my religious or spirit beliefs I would not ask them to change it for me.

Before anyone comes at me Judaism is an enthoreglion, people are Jewish by ancestry and linage, not just their beliefs. Most people who identify as Jewish are born into Jewish families and Judaism is one of the hardest religions to convert to, so you have be extremely dedicated. This is not a dig at Jewish converts I am just making a point.

Jewish actors are still being told to change their names to sound less ethic. Zachary Levi is not a full name, it is his stage name and he is not Jewish. The reason Levi is a part of his stage name is because he has the same name as another actor. He has said before he has angered about missing out on roles because people think he is Jewish. Actually Jewish actors are being turned away from role because they look too Jewish or sound too Jewish. Jewish actor get nose jobs and chemically straighten their hair.

#antisemitism #liberal antisemitism #antisemitism in film #antisemitism in television #antisemitism in theatre #jumblr #jewish actors #jewish

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strawberryqueen00 · 6 months

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Hell no we are not letting this OFMD finale distract from that THIS LETTER.

Had a signature from Taika Waititi. I understand the sensitivity here this issue with Taika being Jewish(and that’s not my place as someone that’s Not Jewish or in those regions to condemn him on that perspective’s behalf) but this letter is directly bastardizing the situation.

Now, when there is a major production from a major figure in this platform that did this, is when we can make the most impact. Remember our values, even when those values involve a show that is strengthening the LGBTQ community.

Because this letter tore down the strength of the movement in support of Gaza. There are going to be so many people that saw this letter and take it completely uncritically, unchallenged.

Standing up for our values means sacrificing our interests, holding accountable the things we enjoy.

And also. I don’t want to see ANYONE. Being fucking antisemitic or racist towards Taika here. That is never appropriate and absolutely inexcusable behavior. You should he ashamed if you think that’s okay even after Taika’s actions.

[Text of Letter]

October 23, 2023

Dear President Biden, We are heartened by Friday's release of the two American hostages, Judith Ranaan and her daughter Natalie Ranaan and by today's release of two Israelis, Nurit Cooper and

Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husbands remain in captivity. But our relief is tempered by our overwhelming concern that 220 innocent people,

including 30 children, remain captive by terrorists, threatened with torture and death.

They were taken by Hamas in the savage massacre of October 7, where over 1,400

Israelis were slaughtered - women raped, families burned alive, and infants beheaded. Thank you for your unshakable moral conviction, leadership, and support for the Jewish people, who have been terrorized by Hamas since the group's founding over 35 years ago, and for the Palestinians, who have also been terrorized, oppressed, and victimized

by Hamas for the last 17 years that the group has been governing Gaza. We all want the same thing: Freedom for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace. Freedom from the brutal violence spread by Hamas. And most urgently, in this

moment, freedom for the hostages. We urge everyone to not rest until all hostages are released. No hostage can be left behind. Whether American, Argentinian, Australian, Azerbaijani, Brazilian, British, Canadian, Chilean, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Eritrean, Filipino, French, German, Indian, Israeli, Italian, Kazakh, Mexican, Panamanian, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, South African, Spanish, Sri Lankan, Thai, Ukrainian,

Uzbekistani or otherwise, we need to bring them home.

Sincerely,

[Text of the names presented. This isn’t all of them, just the copy of this with Taika’s name on it)

Jessica Biel

Jessica Elbaum

Jessica Seinfeld

Jill Littman

Jimmy Carr

Jody Gerson

Joe Hipps

Joe Quinn

Joe Russo

Joe Tippett

Joel Fields

Joey King

John Landgraf

John Slattery

Jon Bernthal

Jon Glickman

Jon Hamm

Jon Harmon Feldman

Jon Liebman

Jon Watts

Jon Weinbach

Jonathan Baruch

Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Marc Sherman

Jonathan Ross

Jonathan Steinberg

Jonathan Tisch

Jonathan Tropper

Jordan Peele

Josh Brolin

Josh Charles

Josh Dallas

Josh Goldstine

Josh Greenstein

Josh Grode

Josh Singer

Judd Apatow

Judge Judy Sheindlin

Julia Fox

Julia Garner

Julia Lester

Julianna Margulies

Julie Greenwald

Julie Rudd

Julie Singer

Juliette Lewis

Jullian Morris

Justin Theroux

Justin Timberlake

KJ Steinberg

Karen Pollock

Karlie Kloss

Katy Perry

Kelley Lynch

Kevin Kane

Kevin Zegers

Kirsten Dunst

Kitao Sakurai

Kristen Schaal

Kristin Chenoweth

Lana Del Rey

Laura Benanti

Laura Dern

Laura Pradelska

Lauren Schuker Blum

Laurence Mark

Laurie David

Lea Michele

Lee Eisenberg

Leo Pearlman

Leslie Siebert

Liev Schreiber

Limor Gott

Lina Esco

Liz Garbus

Lizanne Rosenstein

Lizzie Tisch

Lorraine Schwartz

Lynn Harris

Lyor Cohen

Madonna

Mandana Dayani

Mara Buxbaum

Marc Webb

Marco Perego

Maria Dizzia

Mark Feuerstein

Mark Foster

Mark Scheinberg

Mark Shedletsky

Martin Short

Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Mary McCormack

Mathew Rosengart

Matt Geller

Matt Lucas

Matt Miller

Matthew Bronfman

Matthew Hiltzik

Matthew Weiner

Matti Leshem

Max Mutchnik

Maya Lasry

Meaghan Oppenheimer

Melissa Zukerman

Melissa rudderman

Michael Aloni

Michael Ellenberg

Michael Green

Michael Rapino

Neil Blair

Neil Druckmann

Neil Paris

Nicola Peltz

Nicole Avant

Nina Jacobson

Noa Kirel

Noa Tishby

Noah Oppenheim

Noah Schnapp

Noreena Hertz

Octavia Spencer

Odeya Rush

Olivia Wilde

Oran Zegman

Orlando Bloom

Pasha Kovalev

Pattie LuPone

Patty Jenkins

Paul Haas

Paul Pflug

Paul & Julie Rudd

Peter Baynham

Peter Traugott

Rachel Douglas

Rachel Riley

Rafi Marmor

Ram Bergman

Raphael Margulies

Rebecca Angelo

Rebecca Mall

Regina Spektor

Reinaldo Marcus Green

Rich Statter

Richard Jenkins

Richard Kind

Rick Hoffman

Rick Rosen

Rita Ora

Rob Rinder

Robert Newman

Roger Birnbaum

Roger Green

Rosie O’Donnell

Ross Duffer

Ryan Feldman

Sacha Baron Cohen

Sam Levinson

Sam Trammell

Sara Berman

Sara Foster

Sarah Baker

Sarah Bremner

Sarah Cooper

Sarah Paulson

Sarah Treem

Scott Braun

Scott Neustadter

Scott Tenley

Sean Combs

Sean Levy

Seth Meyers

Seth Oster

Shannon Watts

Shari Redstone

Sharon Jackson

Sharon Stone

Shauna Perlman

Shawn Levy

Sheila Nevins

Shira Haas

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Simon Tikhman

Skylar Astin

Stacey Snider

Stephen Fry

Steve Agee

Steve Rifkind

Sting & Trudie Styler

Susanna Felleman

Susie Arons

Taika Waititi

Thomas Kail

Tiffany Haddish

Todd Lieberman

Todd Moscowitz

Todd Waldman

Tom Freston

Tom Werner

Tomer Capone

Tracy Ann Oberman

Trudie Styler

Tyler Henry

Tyler James Williams

Tyler Perry

Vanessa Bayer

Veronica Grazer

Veronica Smiley

Whitney Wolfe Herd

Will Ferrell

Will Graham

Yamanieka Saunders

Yariv Milchan

Ynon Kreiz

Zack Snyder

Zoe Saldana

#taika waititi #ofmd #our flag means death #gaza #isreal #free palestine #swearing

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wibble-wobbegong · 6 months

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Ross Duffer, Shawn Levy, Brett Gelman, and Noah Schnapp have signed the #NoHostageLeftBehind letter to Biden which reads,

“Dear President Biden,

We are heartened by Friday’s release of the two American hostages, Judith Ranaan and her daughter Natalie Ranaan and by today’s release of two Israelis, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husbands remain in captivity.

But our relief is tempered by our overwhelming concern that 220 innocent people, including 30 children, remain captive by terrorists, threatened with torture and death. They were taken by Hamas in the savage massacre of October 7, where over 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered - women raped, families burned alive, and infants beheaded.

Thank you for your unshakable moral conviction, leadership, and support for the Jewish people, who have been terrorized by Hamas since the group’s founding over 35 years ago, and for the Palestinians, who have also been terrorized, oppressed, and victimized by Hamas for the last 17 years that the group has been governing Gaza.

We all want the same thing: Freedom for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace. Freedom from the brutal violence spread by Hamas. And most urgently, in this moment, freedom for the hostages.

We urge everyone to not rest until all hostages are released. No hostage can be left behind. Whether American, Argentinian, Australian, Azerbaijani, Brazilian, British, Canadian, Chilean, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Eritrean, Filipino, French, German, Indian, Israeli, Italian, Kazakh, Mexican, Panamanian, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, South African, Spanish, Sri Lankan, Thai, Ukrainian, Uzbekistani or otherwise, we need to bring them home. “

You can read it yourself here, alongside every celebrity who signed it.

Knowing that so many people involved with Stranger Things’ production are going out of their way to support this, I’m no longer going to be posting about or interacting with Stranger Things content and I won’t be watching season 5.

I suggest reading the full list as others may disappoint you as they have disappointed me.

From the river to the sea,

Palestine will be free.

#i hope the rest of y’all are able to find new interests #stranger things #shaking with violent rage rn #bunch of pieces of shit

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queermediastudies · 1 year

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Paris is Burning: the Fabulous and the Ugly of Queer POCs in the Shadow of NYC

"Ball is like crossing into the looking glass, a wonderland. You go in there and you feel 100% right of being gay."

Directed by Jennie Livingston in 1990, Paris is Burning follows the Ballroom culture that originated in NYC, an underground LGBTQ+ subculture, where African-American, Latino gay men, and transgender folks "walk" in drag and attend performance competitions to win cash prizes and trophies in categories like “Face,” “Femme Queen Realness,” and "Voguing." In the 1980s of New York City, queer POCs were extremely ostracized due to their sexuality and race, they struggled in the dark ghetto of this metropolitan area, while the Ballroom community offered them a shelter to be their authentic selves. Most participants of Ballroom belong to groups known as "houses." Folks could choose their own "mother" and siblings who accept them and love them, for being gay. What's more, Voguing became queer POCs' distinct way of self-expression. Dancers act in different poses, with an emphasis on the movements of arms and body, just like the model on the cover page of the magazine Vogue. And it is all about confidence and self-love. In this sense, Ballroom became an identity celebration of the oppressed, the exiled, and the outcast, where queer folks of color find status, acceptance, and worth.

Regarding the documentary itself, I argue that Paris is Burning breaks into the mainstream media with its groundbreaking representation of black gays and trans people of color and its disclosure of the intersectional oppressions faced by queer POCs; however, the representation of "performance competitions" is still constrained in the frame of gender performativity, and the production of it is criticized as an appropriation of Ballroom culture by a privileged white filmmaker.

Here is a trailer to have an overview of this documentary.

youtube

Part 1: About Intersectionality

The biggest message Paris is Burning brings to the table is intersectionality, where it captures black gays and trans people of color as well as their subculture. Queer theory actively acknowledges the importance of queer of color critiques. That is, oppression on various aspects of identity intertwines and compounds together, such as sexuality, gender, race, age, class, and ableness. And each oppressive institution (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.) cannot be examined separately from one another. Queer folks of color are being ostracized and marginalized not only within larger society but also in the queer community, meaning that they face multiple oppressions. And it is true. A gay man of color in the documentary said, "I remember my dad used to say, 'you have three strikes against you in the world. You are black, a male, and you are gay; you are going to have a hard fuckin' time.'"

Tracing back the history of Ballroom culture, we also see the significance of intersectionality through its origin. Black and Latino drag queens used to experience racism in established drag queen pageant circuits. Although participants were racially integrated, the judges were almost all white. Since then, drag queens of color have begun to organize their own pageants, the Ball. In that case, Ball culture becomes a retrospective symbol of the era when queer people of color underwent discrimination from multiple sources.

Venus Xtravaganza, a trans woman in the documentary, whose murder reveals the very dark and brutal side of intersectional oppression. Venus, an Italian-American, was saving up money for gender confirmation surgery while earning a living as a sex worker after she was excluded by her family. However, her dead body was found at a hotel on Christmas Day, 1988, during the documentary's shooting. But her killer was never found. In the documentary, she described the experience of being attacked by a man who discovered she was transgender during an intimate encounter. Hence, Xtravaganza's trans identity, multiraciality, homelessness, hustling, poor access to health care, and AIDS — all these aspects layered together contributed to the tragic end of this beautiful life.

Below is a clip about the self-narrative by Venus Xtravaganza.

youtube

“The most profound and potentially the most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression" (Collective, 1983, p. 210). In other words, coping with oppression is inherently associated with identity politics, a deconstruction of identity and labels. What queer folks of color need are to be recognized as normal, equal, lively human beings.

Part 2: About Gender Performativity

It is undeniable that Paris is Burning is a milestone in portraying queer POCs, however, there are still some controversies. Firstly, the representation of "performance competition" still conforms to the tenet of gender performativity. To articulate that, we need to know the basic rules of competition in a given ball first. There are various "categories," or themes, for each competition, such as "Military," "School," "Executive Realness," "Butch Queen's First Time in Drag at a Ball," etc. And participants need to dress according to the guidelines of each category; for example, they wear “yacht wear," military garb, the outfits of private school kids, business attire, and extravagant dress to adhere to the rules.

Here is a clip from the documentary explaining "Categories."

youtube

Overall, we can see these queer POCs parody their heterosexual counterparts. It seems effortless for them to perform high femininity or masculinity in a world of heterosexual folks. However, these "categories" also signify that they are still in a dichotomous system and perform binary genders.

Another category called "high fashion evening wear" required participants to dress and act as an elegant, beautiful young lady wearing an evening dress. Every participant was strictly required to have a purse. "An evening bag is a must, you have to carry something; no lady is sure at night." This kind of "norm" reminds me of the gender performativity theory by Judith Butler: gender is not something we are but something we do. However, due to the reliance on norms, we "do" genders through imitative performance, ultimately leading to extended repetition. In other words, we have no authentic gender.

The voiceover of the documentary said, "The more natural you are, the more credit your outfit is given." "Give people a sense that they are not gay, like a real woman or a real man." However, what is "natural" and what is "real"? What is even a category? As Judith Butler has argued, "we cannot necessarily assume that binary biological sex everywhere provides the universal basis for the cultural categories ‘male’ and ‘female’. If gender constructs are culturally variable, then so are the categories of sexual difference" (cited in Andresson, 2002, p. 6).

Being different is not a flaw, which is the spirit of the queer community. Unfortunately, the documentary did not highlight how queer people of color get rid of the constraints of the binary system or how they go against the mainstream, which makes it less queer.

Part 3: About the Production

Much of the controversy surrounding Paris is Burning has also centered on the perceived appropriation of a black gay subculture by a privileged white queer filmmaker for profits. Jennie Livingston is an American director. She graduated from Yale University in 1983, where she studied photography, drawing, and painting with a minor in English literature. "Whiteness" and the social status of an "ivy student" are critical privileges for Livingston. What's more, she identified herself as a lesbian. It seems Linviston's queerness helps her to enter the industry and tell stories about black gays and trans people of color even though she is not a part of the Ball community.

It is not surprising that the filmmaker's white view leads to stereotypical depictions of black folks in the documentary. For example, the "Banjee" competition features impersonations of the gum-chewing, round-the-way sexy girl on welfare or the crackhead gangbanger on the block. Besides that, Dorian Corey, an experienced drag queen, said in the documentary: "Black stars are stigmatized. Nobody want to look like Lena Horn, everybody wanted to look like Marilyn Monroe." This scene amplifies the drag queen's self-hatred, solidifying the admiration for whiteness among drags. But this kind of representation is biased.

"Too often, people with resources who already have a platform become the ones to tell the stories of those at the margins rather than people who themselves belong to these communities" (Tourmaline, 2017). We need to strive for a time when queer people of color have the opportunity and capital to shoot their own stories. “Power struggles over control of one’s image and access to the tools of media production were, and still are, crucial in communities of color” (Parkerson, 2020). Although the show Pose has made some breakthroughs by hiring trans characters and trans writers, it is hard to make any substantial change in this inherently racist, heterosexual, white male-dominant industry.

Moreover, the film made 4 million dollars, yet only $55,000 was distributed among the 13 performers. Performers felt cheated and were not satisfied with their representation in the documentary. In 2014, when the documentary was to be screened at a public event hosted by Celebrate Brookly! / BRIC, a protest was raised. In such circumstances, Livingston would apologize for the cultural appropriation to her own advantage.

Here is a clip showing the life of performers after the Paris is Burning.

youtube

Final Thoughts

"Good or bad, Paris is Burning is a milestone in the gay community."

Considering my own subject positionality, as a straight, cisgender woman of color from China, I have to say that watching Paris is Burning is definitely a fascinating and eye-opening experience. Regardless of some of its biased representation, this documentary makes me take a glimpse of the Ballroom culture in NYC which has extended globally and influenced a lot of Chinese queer folks in recent years. I also get to know some drag queen shows becoming popular in underground clubs located in Shanghai and Beijing.

Meanwhile, I deeply resonate with this group of outcast New Yorkers, for whom racism, poverty, and homophobia are too real, too tough, while they create a world of sustenance and belongingness by themselves. It is all about the power they give to themselves. In the name of glory and pride, they dance, scream, suffer, survive, and most importantly, be themselves here. Ballroom culture makes them not stay in the shadow of NYC, but throw the shadow on those who demean them. All in all, Paris is Burning is the "fire this time."

References:

Andersson, Y (2002). “Queer Media?: Or; What Has Queer Theory to do with Media Studies?” IAMCR, 1-10.

Collective, C. R. (1983). The Combahee river collective statement. Home girls: A Black feminist anthology, 1, 264-274.

Martin, A. L. (2018, August 2nd). Pose(r): Ryan Murphy, Trans and Queer of Color Labor, and the Politics of Representation. LA Review of Books. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/poser-ryan-murphy-trans-queer-color-labor-politics-representation/

Parkerson, M. (2020, February 25th). Paris Is Burning: The Fire This Time. The Criteron Collection. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6832-paris-is-burning-the-fire-this-time

By Selene

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girlactionfigure · 1 year

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The British Socialite Who Saved Jewish Children: Iris Cutting Origo

She used her considerable wealth and resources to help others.

Iris Cutting Origo was an upper-class British writer living in Italy who transformed her lavish estate into a safe haven for refugees during World War II.

Iris Cutting was born in England in 1902 to a privileged family. Her father was an American diplomat and her mother was a British aristocrat. The family moved frequently when Iris was little in search of an effective treatment for her father’s tuberculosis. He died when she was 7, and Iris and her mother moved to a fifteenth-century villa in Florence, Italy. Her father’s death and her nomadic childhood made Iris feel like she didn’t belong anywhere, and she developed a strong sense of compassion for outsiders.

During the First World War, teenage Iris started a clothing drive and persuaded her mother to take in a homeless family. After the war, Iris married Antonio Origo, a dashing cavalry veteran ten years her senior. In the 1920’s, they purchased La Foce, a large estate in Tuscany. The tenant farmers on the estate were mostly poor, illiterate, malnourished and unhealthy. The Origos renovated the tenants’ homes and provided them with nutritious food, schools for adults and children, and state-of-the-art health-care facilities.

In 1925, Iris gave birth to their first child, Gianni. When he was seven – the same age Iris was when she lost her father – Gianni died of meningitis. Iris plunged into a severe depression. After several months, she channeled her energy into writing, and published several popular biographies of Italian cultural figures.

After World War II began in 1939, Iris began volunteering with the Red Cross in Rome, and gave birth to two daughters. After the Germans occupied Italy in 1943, she turned her beloved La Foce into a safe haven for escaped Allied POWs, Jewish refugees from Rome and Florence, Italian army deserters, and resistance fighters. She fed them, clothed them, cared for them and provided shelter in her luxurious compound.

In 1944, after the Allies had landed in Southern Italy, the front lines came very close to the Origo estate. On June 2, German soldiers occupied La Foce, and Iris and Antonio sprang into action. They led a large group, including 23 Jewish refugee children, an orphan baby, most of the La Foce tenant families, and their own infant daughters, to safety in sleepy mountain towns, where she found temporary shelters for the refugees.

As soon the Germans left La Foce, Iris and Antonio returned to find their beautiful home nearly destroyed. Their belongings had been looted, their livestock stolen or killed, and the tenants who’d chosen to remain had been raped or murdered. The Origos worked to make La Foce habitable again, and brought the refugee children back there, where Iris cared for them for the rest of the war. After World War II ended, Iris reunited most of the children with their families, and found adoptive homes for the rest.

For the rest of her life, Iris continued her tireless work on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, and the homeless. She published children’s books and several more biographies. After Antonio’s death in 1976, Iris’ mental and physical health began to decline. She died at La Foce in 1988, at age 85. The epitaph on her gravestone reads, “The more you know, the more you love, and by loving more, the more you enjoy.”

For opening her home and her heart to refugees from Fascist oppression, we honor Iris Origo as this week’s Thursday Hero.

#Thursday Hero

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theterrancrowe · 4 days

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I don’t really like Zootopia, not one bit…

I mean, I used to like Zootopia when it first came out, but I was very young and naïve at the time and I didn’t really understand (or more accurately, care to understand) the problems that plague the actual film.

And I’m not talking about how it essentially uses the same cookie-cutter plot of most Disney films at the time, nor am I talking about the shitty twist villain, Assistant Bellweather, or even the god-awful pop song, ‘try everything’ by Shakira. No, I am specifically referring to the political messaging of the film.

In a nutshell, the racism allegory of Zootopia doesn’t work because of both the mismanaged use of animal symbolism (specifically the LACK of symbolism of meaningful use of it), and the complete unwillingness on behalf of the writers to explore the nuances of racism in any way.

The concept of 'race' is really just a colonial construct just made to serve the interests of colonial powers in Europe and to justify the abhorrent actions they were doing to literally everyone else, and only has a weak connection to actual ethnicity. Like, the reason why Irish and Italians were not considered "white" back then, but are now, or how people group eastern asians as a 'seperate kind of people' than south and southestern asians because they're not brown is all the same, its made up.

And because the writers dont seem to really understand this about race (and also because theyre both white), they completely misrepresent race as a concept by depicting it as just a real and biological way that people are structured as, instead of the wibbly-wobbly bullshit that it really is, it's like how a lot of cis people like to treat the gender binary. But at the same time this supposed 'biological truth' is just pushed aside as just a slight difference, like how in the actual film, no one actually addresses what predators eat or how they actually are different.

This contradictory nature is also the reason as to why they have to 'go savage' in order to actually stir up the bullshit race war that Assistant Mayor Bellweather wanted (just because i guess? Her motives are never explained.) This movie talks about racism like its just people hating eachother for a justifiable reason that they just made up, and then bending backwards and saying that its completely nonsensical and we should just get along anyway.

I think the reason as to why this is, is because the actual writers just don't know shit about racism. They're both white, and they don't seem to make that many political stances anyway, so its safe to assume that all the nuances of systemic racism have just not stuck to them in any way, and that their understanding of it just boils down to "some people are just mean to others because their skin is brown."

Racism in real life is based on cultural ideas on how certain 'races' behave mostly in a cultural context. Theres a reason why black people often have negative stereotypes depicting them as robbers or violent rapists, or of them eating fried chicken and watermelon like animals. Because black people have a history of enslavement, followed by racist systemic oppression after the abolishment of legal slavery as an American institution. These stereotypes are bullshit, but they exist, not as a product of some innate human quality of tribalism, but as a product of a white supremacist culture. The same goes for all other 'races' too, with their own specific cultural contexts.

There's so much potential in using furry imagery to convey a political message, but what this movie does with it is to just tell a neoliberal story about a half baked racism allegory that doesn't even make a lick of sense under scrutiny

#Zootopia #movies

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izzyspussy · 1 year

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I got a question a long time ago from I don't remember who about how I made sure the witch noir power types (which are inspired by cultural folklore) were not offensive or appropriative, and I think my answer was probably pretty dismissive, so I decided to give some actual examples of the ones I still remember and my process for coming up with them.

First off, remember that folklore is not synonymous with religion or spiritual practices. So that already makes taking inspiration from there much less delicate of a thing to do. To give a comparative example before we get into the process examples: say I wanted to make a power in this fashion inspired by North American Native culture. I would use "land stewardship" or something similar as my jumping off point, NOT something like the w*ndigo. The difference between those things is significant, and I think pretty clear?

I also think a big part of this system that makes it not insensitive is that none of the powers (and therefore none of the - obliquely - referenced cultures) are exoticized. What I mean by that is that power type isn't determined by skin color or religion, and every power type is equally special and mundane to each other (aside from the oppressed group of types, which are primarily based in my own cultures anyway just because those are what the main characters have and in this particular work the main characters are tangentially representing me). There's no Magical Brown Guy or whatever that trope is called. inversely, neither are any of the white people inspired power types portrayed as being more "civilized" or otherwise more inherently Good™ in any way.

Now for some actual inspirations I took, the witch types they ended up being, and how I got there.

1. spin the globe, pick a people. okay, Slavic. get more specific. Romania. take it back now y'all. Transylvania. so obviously vampires then. what are vampire "powers". hypnotism. what's the basic concept of hypnotism. control of perception. apply some limits. only works on relative strangers. word associate to name it. first impressions -> impressionist. no that's already a widely recognizable word in the language I'm writing in. well they can make people trust them on sight, kind of like how some baby animals imprint on the first thing they see. experiment with suffixes until it sounds good. google that to make sure it's not already something. viola, the Imprintor witch type.

2. pick a people. Asian. get more specific. Chinese. what's one of the most iconic Chinese artifacts (is that the right word?). the Great Wall. what was its purpose. to protect the border. a protective barrier. how can I make that into a power. warding is already a type of magic. make it unique using characteristics of the Wall. it was made with extraordinary physical labor. for this power wards must be connected and maintained by the caster through a physical part of them left behind. now name it. protector -> guard -> the Guardian witch type.

3. pick a people. European. get more specific. Italian. what have they got. da Vinci -> no ideas. Vatican City -> Catholicism -> I'm not into that. what's a culturally-based quirk Italians are known for? superstition. how can I turn that into a power type. someone in the presence of whom superstitions become true. apply limitations because holy shit lol. now name it. superstitionist? no that's too on the nose. something to do with omens. behold, the Augur witch type.

4. pick a people. central American. get more specific. Mexican. what's a frequent theme in Mexican art? death -> dia de los muertos -> communication and visitation from the spiritual world. that doesn't really need any finagling. name it. look up a list of things people who can talk to spirits are called. pick one -> the Medium witch type.

5. pick a people. Irish. first thought is of course fairies. no, fairies are their own thing. second thought: "luck of the Irish" -> bad luck. how can I turn that into a power. someone who can inflict bad luck on people. add good luck and some other easily associated things like grace/clumsiness to round it out and get it on the level of the other power types (and make sure no type can only be villainous - or heroic for that matter). name it. it's based on what amounts to a cheeky little curse. a hex -> the Hexist witch type.

I also reverse engineered... well, at least one.

pick a people. European again. get more specific. Greek. gosh they sure have a lot of statues of gods and heroes. idols, you might say. what would the powers of an Idol be? well idols are worshipped, so someone who can make you worship them. include an opposite effect to round it out like with the Hexist. apply some specificity and limitations, and make it more morally neutral. an Idol is someone who can extreme-ify emotions in other, as to turn like into love and annoyance into hate.

In the name of full disclosure, I did have a few types initially that I later decided either toed the line of appropriation or learned used words or traditions that were not meant to be shared, and I either got rid of them or adjusted them until they were distant enough from the starting point - or could just as easily be gotten through the same process from a different starting point - that I didn't feel it was necessarily connected anymore.

Again to compare, unlike say Joker who transposed the names and images of real Native American spiritual figures in her fundamentally British Christian boarding school fantasy, I first of all did not use specific figures or practices, nor anything expressly religious (other than, again, my own), and also only used the folklore/motif/symbol/characteristic/idiom/philosophy/geography/etc as a jumping off point rather than lifting it wholesale. The power types I made are in fact power types that I made, and only use things as a basis that are broad or nebulous enough in nature that they can't really be stolen or misrepresented.

So that's why I'm, as I said in my more dismissive answer, "not that worried about it". Does that make sense, whoever asked several months ago...?

(not tagging witch noir taglist atm because I'm on mobile and that's an absolute hassle. will do later. if I remember. I will tag @athena-anna-rose right now tho, since I remember you briefly struggling a while ago with making a magic system. idk if you still need that or if this kind of structure is at all relevant to what you're going for, but just in case lol.)

#jack facts #jack chats #<- i GUESS #writing process #witch noir

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are-they-z · 6 months

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Supporters of #NoHostageLeftBehind Open Letter to Joe Biden - Part 1/2

The letter consists of lies, no mention of Palestinian genocides, and a call for ceasefire.

Read the full letter:

Dear President Biden,

We are heartened by Friday's release of the two American hostages, Judith Ranaan and her daughter Natalie Ranaan [Raanan] and by today's release of two Israelis, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husbands remain in captivity.

But our relief is tempered by our overwhelming concern that 220 innocent people, including 30 children, remain captive by terrorists, threatened with torture and death. They were taken by Hamas in the savage massacre of October 7, where over 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered—women raped, families burned alive, and infants beheaded.

Thank you for your unshakable moral conviction, leadership, and support for the Jewish people, who have been terrorized by Hamas since the group's founding over 35 years ago, and for the Palestinians, who have also been terrorized, oppressed, and victimized by Hamas for the last 17 years that the group has been governing Gaza.

Supporters:

Adam & Jackie Sandler

Amy Schumer

Aaron Sorkin

Barry Diller

Behati Prinsloo

Bella Thorne

Ben Stiller

Bob Odenkirk

Bobbi Brown

Bradley Cooper

Brett Gelman

Chris Rock

Constance Wu

Courteney Cox

David Alan Grier

David Chang

David Geffen

David Oyelowo

Diane Von Furstenberg

Eli Roth

Emma Seligman

Eric Andre

Ewan McGregor

Gal Gadot

Gwyneth Paltrow

Harvey Keitel

Isla Fisher

Jack Black

James Brolin

Jason Blum

Jason Sudeikis

Jeff Goldblum

Jerry Seinfeld

Jesse Plemons

Jessica Biel

Jessica Seinfeld

Joey King

John Slattery

Jon Hamm

Jordan Peele

Josh Brolin

Judd Apatow

Judge Judy Sheindlin

Julia Garner

Julianna Margulies

Julie Rudd

Justin Theroux

Justin Timberlake

Karlie Kloss

Katy Perry

Kirsten Dunst

Lana Del Rey

Laura Dern

Liev Schreiber

Madonna

Martin Short

Michelle Williams

Mila Kunis

Nicola Peltz

Noa Tishby

Olivia Wilde

Orlando Bloom

Paul & Julie Rudd

Richard Jenkins

Rita Ora

Ross Duffer

Sacha Baron Cohen

Sam Levinson

Sarah Paulson

Sean Combs

Shira Haas

Sting & Trudie Styler

Taika Waititi

Thomas Kail

Tiffany Haddish

Tyler Perry

Will Ferrell

Andy Cohen

Alex Edelman

Amy Sherman Palladino

Aubrey Plaza

Barry Levinson

Billy Crystal

Brad Falchuk

Brian Grazer

Bridget Everett

Brooke Shields

Chelsea Handler

Chloe Fineman

Chris Jericho

Colleen Camp

David Schwimmer

Dawn Porter

Dean Cain

Debra Messing

Elisabeth Shue

Erin Foster

Eugene Levy

Gene Stupinski

Gina Gershon

Guy Oseary

Henry Winkler

Holland Taylor

James Corden

Jason Reitman

Jessica Elbaum

Jimmy Carr

Jonathan Ross

Josh Charles

Juliette Lewis

Kristen Schaal

Kristin Chenoweth

Lea Michele

Mark Foster

Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Matthew Weiner

Michael Rappaport

Molly Shannon

Noah Schnapp

Pattie LuPone

Regina Spektor

Sara Foster

Sarah Cooper

Scott Braun

Seth Meyers

Sharon Stone

Zack Snyder

Zoey Deutch

Zosia Mamet

Zoe Saldana

Alex Aja

Aaron Bay-Schuck

Amy Chozick

Aron Coleite

Adam Goodman

Alan Grubman

Adam Levine

Allan Loeb

Amy Pascal

Angela Robinson

Antonio Campos

Anthony Russo

Alexandra Shiva

Andrew Singer

Alison Statter

Alona Tal

Ali Wentworth

Ari Dayan

Ari Greenburg

Arik Kneller

Ashley Levinson

Asif Satchu

Barbara Hershey

Barry Rosenstein

Beau Flynn

Ben Turner

Ben Winston

Ben Younger

Blair Kohan

Bobby Kotick

Brad Slater

Bradley Fischer

Bruna Papandrea

Cameron Curtis

Casey Neistat

Cazzie David

Charles Roven

Chris Fischer

Christian Carino

Cindi Berger

Claire Coffee

Craig Silverstein

Dan Aloni

Dan Rosenweig

Dana Goldberg

Dana Klein

Danny Strong

Daniel Palladino

Danielle Bernstein

Danny Cohen

Daphne Kastner

David Bernad

David Baddiel

David Ellison

David Gilmour &

Polly Sampson

David Goodman

David Joseph

David Kohan

David Lowery

Deborah Lee Furness

Deborah Snyder

Donny Deutsch

Doug Liman

Douglas Chabbott

Eddy Kitsis

Edgar Ramirez

Elizabeth Himelstein

Embeth Davidtz

Emmanuelle Chriqui

Erik Feig

Evan Jonigkeit

Evan Winiker

Francis Benhamou

Francis Lawrence

Fred Raskin

#palestine #palestinian genocide #gaza #apartheid #celebs #propaganda

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kob131 · 1 year

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what the fuck is wrong with you lol

Definitely not what you're thinking.

I never once defended Nazis by saying 'They were just following orders', I said 'threatened and indoctrinated'.

Seriously? This is the worst thing you could come up with? Hiring former Nazi scientists for the Space Race?

This isn't even unique to the US- Russia did the same thing.

So even if I considered 'hiring former scientists from the Nazi regime' to be the same or worse than 'firing an innocent animal that is effectively wired to trust and love humans due to hundreds, thousands of years of evolution and leaving the scientists who actually KNEW and LOVED that dog with her death on their heads all for their political pissing contest'- Russia at this time would have still been worse.

And considering that these scientists were either indoctrinated or threatened like many Nazis were- Yeah, those commie fuck sticks aren't getting any points from me.

I find it rather hard to believe that 1600 people would all or most of would be evil.

And if this is about the 'racist' thing-

Yeah-

You might want to revisit this comment because-

Wouldn't BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION indicate this is not an admission or acknowledgement but rather a sarcastic use of the word to indicate someone fucking up?

BTW-

(2) Knight Of Balance: Redux on Tumblr

This is what they were calling racist.

This doesn't even make a statement ON any racial group, let alone a negative one based on being said racial group.

It's a fuck you to a racist theory that lumps several groups together with other groups that historically HATED and OPPRESSED them (the irish and italians with the english and english americans) just to create an us vs. them dynamic.

You know, what the Nazis did. Because the difference between CRT and whatever you call Hitler's delusions is a coat of paint.

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alivehouse · 1 year

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the most oppressed group in this world is third to fourth generation italian american men. never forget that

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ebookporn · 2 years

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by Raj Tawney, writer exploring race, culture and food

If agents and acquiring editors truly want to affirm their open-mindedness after confronting their lack of diversity, they’re going to have to stop putting such a limited scope on nonwhite stories and writers.

What does the public want? Diverse voices or human drama? The publishing industry seems to think the two must go hand in hand for a book to be successful. A story like mine, in which the prejudice and bigotry I underwent was more subtle and accumulated over a lifetime, apparently isn’t the sort of real-life experience that publishers want to invest in –– but does that mean it wouldn’t sell?

On my journey to becoming a book author and finding a publisher who’d see the potential in my work, which largely explores elements of my Indian, Puerto Rican and Italian heritage, I’ve been repeatedly turned away. It’s relatable material to the growing population of American citizens who identify as multiracial. Most of the editors who passed on my proposal said they enjoyed it but thought a marginalized tale like mine needed to display more conflict if it was to be marketable. One editor even referred to me as a voice whose platform was still emerging.

When stories that don’t center on the negative experiences of people of color aren’t seen as valuable enough to share, it’s a disservice to the public.

Of course, the tragic story lines from groups and individuals who have experienced oppression and hardship are vital to a complete and essential literary landscape, and long overdue. But when stories that don’t center on the negative experiences of people of color aren’t seen as valuable enough to share, it’s a disservice to the public. Misunderstandings, ignorance and alienation remain a foothold in society when white readers aren’t routinely exposed to the fact that people of color aren’t monolithic, and when people of color don’t see more names and narratives in print that represent the nuances of their lives.

#authors #writers #writing #black authors #diverse voices #librarians #books publishing #booksellers

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eleanoragrayalien · 1 month

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This Playlist Kills Fascists

This is a playlist I made of music written for historical anti-fascist movements, music that is symbolic of anti-fascist movements, and music that showcases anti-fascist values and ideas. I made this and am posting it here as part of the final project for one of my classes this quarter. The playlist is 21 minutes long and contains folk, punk, and rap in several languages.

Under the cut is an annotated track list, and some additional context for the playlist. If you decide to read it please let me know what you thought!

Fascism is a complex right-wing ideology that can’t be explained without a lot of nuance. Roger Griffin‘s “palingenetic ultranationalism“ and Umberto Eco‘s Ur-Fascismare are two frequently cited explanations. Regardless, fascistic societies are always highly oppressive, unstable, and bigoted.

Anti-fascism is the belief that the formation of a fascist society should be opposed at all costs. Most anti-fascists are leftists, and may be involved in a wide variety of other social movements.

-1 Modena City Ramblers “Fischia Il Vento” (2015)

Starting off the playlist is “Fischia Il Vento” (The Wind Blows), an Italian anti-fascist resistance song originally written in 1944 (I chose to use the Modena City Ramblers version, it’s a bop). I chose to play this song first because Italian resistance to Mussolini was the first organized anti-fascist movement (1920s). These partisans were largely communists and anarchists.

to conquer the red spring where rises the sun of the future

The lyrics use “the conquering of the red spring” as a metaphor for establishing a communist society, which directly opposes the aims of fascists. This is why leftists are the most opposed to fascists taking power.

-2 Frente Popular “A las Barricadas” (1936)

“A las Barricadas” (To the Barricades), was a song popular among National Confederation of Labor (CNT) members during the Spanish civil war.

Though pain and death may await us, Against the enemy by duty we are called.

“A las Barricadas” shows the way anti-fascists oppose fascism at all costs, even if it means percinal harm. “Fischia Il Vento“ also mirors this sentiment.

-3 Los Pinochet Boys “La Música del General” (1984)

Los Pinochet Boy’s story is exhilarating. They were a clandestine punk rock band that formed during Pinochet’s fascist dictatorship of Chile. Every show they played was a revolutionary act that would end in a police raid. “La Música del General” is one of the two surviving recordings of the band’s music and shows the need for expression under oppression. (Naomi Larsson Piñeda. “A fascist tried to electrocute us on stage” 2023)

Musical Dictatorship Nobody can stop dancing The music of the general The music of the general

-4 National Wake “International News” (2013) [The original release is from 1979]

National Wake was the only multi racial punk band in apartheid South Africa. Like Los Pinochet Boys, their music was illegal to make. Under apartheid white and black South Africans were not allowed to live and work together. “International News” showcases the way international (American, and British) media failed to adequately cover the violent response to the Soweto uprising, where student’s protesting the forced use of Afrikaans in schools were met with extreme violence from the police. (Alexis Petridis “National Wake: the South African punk band who defied apartheid” 2013)

'put a blanket over Soweto They put a blanket, nowhere to go, no They put a blanket over the news They put a blanket, nothing to choose

-5 Killah P “I won’t cry, I won’t fear” (2012)

Pavlos Fyssas, who went by the stage name Killah P (killer of the past) was a Greek anti-fascist rapper. In 2013 he was murdered by a group of Golden Dawn members (the Golden Dawn is a fascist Greek political party). His death sparked a weeks long protest in Athens that garnered 10,000 people and put pressure on the Greek parliament to investigate the Golden Dawn as a criminal organization. Pavlos is remembered as a martyr, and his music remains a symbol of anti-fascism in Greece. (Patrick Strickland. “Greece mourns slain anti-fascist...” 2017)

-6 Dead Kennedys “Nazi Punks Fuck Off!” (1981)

I would be remiss not to include this song. The early punk scene had a Nazi problem. Some punks wore fascist symbols for the sake of offending people, fascists came to shows not realizing the music was mocking them, and Neo-Nazi gangs would violently disrupt shows. (Steve Knopper. “Nazi Punks F**k Off... “ 2018) Making it clear to fascists that they are unwelcome, and that there are consequences if they don’t stop being a fascist is a tactic effectively used by groups like Anti Racist Action. (Mark Bray. Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook 2017)

-7 Rainbow Coalition Death Cult “Blue MAGA” (2022)

“Blue MAGA” begins with a sample from Leroi Jones’s “Young Spirit House Movers and Players”.

WHAT HAS AMERICA DONE FOR ME? NOTHING BUT MADE ME A ZOMBIE!

The use of the word zombie (think Haitian Vodou, not The Living Dead) aligns perfectly with how Iris Young describes powerlessness in “Five Faces of Oppression” as an “inhibition to develop one’s capacities, lack of decision making power, and exposure to disrespectful treatment because of the lowered status”. RCDC then compares this social powerlessness to political powerlessness.

"Pipe down and tow the line, you got no room to whine Censor those who don't comply, we're the best that you got." Some say they'll put up a fight, they really don't have the spine Just an image they hide behind, to make you feel like we won

They then end the song

The truth is they're all full of shit

Suggesting that the status quo isn’t the best that we can get, and that action can be taken to make our lives better.

-8 G.L.O.S.S. “Give Violence A Chance” (2016)

Despite the majority of antifa activism being nonviolent, anti-fascists take a systemic view of violent self defense and act on it accordingly.

KILLER COPS AREN'T CROOKED SOLDIERS FOR BASTARDS, THEY DO AS THEY'RE TOLD THE COURTS AREN'T CORRUPT MALICIOUS, VIOLENT, THEY MAINTAIN CONTROL

Even when the cops kill and the courts falsely convict it’s not seen as violence because they have the approval of the state to do that violence. The same would apply to borders, and immigration bans which can only be enforced with a threat of violence that an anti-fascist would say justifies self defense, violent or otherwise. (Philosophy Tube "The Philosophy of Antifa" 2017)

-9 Noname “Song 33″ (2020)

I struggled to find a single song that could symbolize my thoughts on the protests following George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis police. For many people in my generation 2020 was an awakening. Even if you were aware of the racism inherent to policing and America broadly (if you were white) it might not have seemed as totalising, and urgent as it is. Song 33 embodies this feeling. Noname asks

He really 'bout to write about me when the world is in smokes? When it's people in trees? When George was beggin' for his mother, saying he couldn't breathe You thought to write about me?

and

Distracting from the convo with organizers They talkin' abolishin' the police And this the new world order We democratizin' Amazon, we burn down borders

Textually, She’s asking rapper J. Cole why he wrote a rap about her tone when he could be rapping about what matters. Subtextually, she is asking the listener the same question.

She also highlights the intersectional solidarity of the anti-fascist movement, drawing parallels between BLM’s goal of abolishing the police, labor rights, and abolishing borders.

-10 Woody Guthrie “All You Fascists Bound To Lose“ (1942)

Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger were both well known anti-fascist musicians in America during their lives. Both of them made anti-nazi music durring the war and continued to make music that espoused anti-fascist values afterward. Guthrie’s iconic “This Machine Kills Fascists” sticker is still a common anti-fascist slogan.

I wanted to end on this song because of how hopeful it is.

The people in this world Are getting organized You’re bound to lose You fascists bound to lose

Fascism is bound to loose in the end. But only because people are fighting back against it, organizing, and standing in solidarity with one another.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you got something out of it.

#it's 9am #i hope this is coherent #good night #punk #dead kennedys #folk music #g.l.o.s.s.#gloss #woody guthrie #pete seeger #anti facist #antifascism

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miistical · 1 year

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week ten - north american marginalized voices

I'll admit, I was most excited for this week. I'm already a fan of James Baldwin's writing (I mean, who really isn't?) and I went over some of Amy Tan's work (including this week's story) in a class last semester. However, it wasn't just the familiar names that I was looking forward to, but devoting my time to marginalized voices and reading of experiences that are so similar yet so very different from my own. As a queer American, it is something I like to do to broaden my knowledge on other minority groups and how that might bolster my own understanding of intersectionality.

Week ten had these stories: James Baldwin's "Going to Meet the Man" Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" Gish Jen's "In American Society" Leslie Marmon Silko's "Yellow Woman"

This week is all about non-white American experiences. There have been sections of American history where pretty much everyone has been treated as inferior. Germans were barbarians, the Irish uncivilized, Italians were unclean—and those are the nice pieces of propaganda. Africans were chattel slaves, Chinese immigrants were indentured servants, the Native tribes stripped of their land and culture; and this isn't even going into the Japanese interment camps, radicalized Islamophobia, American antisemitism, the anti-gay AIDS epidemic, and increasing otherness of our Latino neighbors. There's so much to cover, but these stories are a nice starting point for any reader.

The first story is "Going to Meet the Man" by James Baldwin, an incredibly famous contemporary American author. The narration is intentionally brutal, with all the savagery you could imagine coming from a racist cop in the mid-1900s. The detail of how he abuses Black women and beat Black boys is horrifying in its specificity; you can't tell if Baldwin is pulling from real life or not, but there is a sick truth in it nonetheless. Baldwin doesn't pull any punches by going into just how the institutions of white America systematically oppressed its Black citizens as well as how white people in power reveled in that oppression. The narrator is constantly excited by the power he has over Black people, even in more innocuous ways. He expects to be given respect when he shows none and that quiet, unobtrusive Black people are the "best" kind and that any other are less than animals—and I do mean less than animals considering how the narrator believes all Black people to be nothing more than animals pretending at being people.

Not as horrifying as Baldwin's story, Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" goes deeper into what it means to be a second generation immigrant. A second generation Chinese American herself, Tan has the perfect knowledge of what being diaspora feels like. For those unaware, "diaspora" is the term given to those who have left their homeland. Much like being mixed ethnically, it can lead to a sensation of having to be two people at once or that you can't be either "correctly". The narrator of "Two Kinds" verbalizes this perfectly when she and her mother have an argument where she's told she can either be a good daughter (an obedient one expected in Chinese culture) or a bad daughter (not obedient, or influenced by Western culture) and that there's only room for a "good daughter". The entire story revolves around this sense of not knowing how to be or which is more correct for the narrator to become—does becoming one erase the other?

Next is Gish Jen's "In American Society"—very fitting, for a woman still writing about the problems of American society today. Americana has an almost insidious way of seeping its way through the cracks of any culture on Earth. The family, immigrants from China, find themselves morphing from their original, cultural beliefs to better fit the American ideas of capitalism and exceptionalism. The father slowly becomes more and more careless with his workers, driving everyone away until his employees are illegal Hispanic immigrants and, on occasion, his own daughters. His wife undergoes a similar transformation into the typical 1950s housewife. Yet, they can't (and won't) complete this change into the "standard" American family - and they're not alone. The dad goes to bail his workers out of jail because, in China, it's his job as their boss to take care of them. The mom is told by a woman in the country club she wants to join that most of the members are other minorities (other immigrants, Black families, and Jews) playing pretend at the "great American dream". They can act as American as they want, but they won't ever completely fit in due to the cultural beliefs of their original home.

The last one is "Yellow Woman" by Leslie Marmon Silko, one of the key figures in the First Wave of the Native American Renaissance. This story greatly details what it can be like, living as a Native American in the 20th century. The narrator is Pueblo and she believes the man she is with, Silva, is Navajo. The time they spend together is surreal almost, due to the narrator's uncertainty about her situation. Is Silva really Navajo? Is he just calling her "Yellow Woman" to convince her their meeting is like that of the story? This gets marred even further when they are accosted by a white man. To the narrator and Silva, they are different (Pueblo and Navajo tribes are friendly, but not the same), but to the white man they are both just Indians. It doesn't matter that they are different cultural traditions, to him they are different in the same way. This comes to a head when the narrator returns home, only revealing to her family that she was "taken" by a Navajo, just like the myths say. Different, yet the same.

For all that the United States has badly treated those it has found to be "other", I'm glad it exists on some level. No other country in the world has such a wide variety of peoples all living together, with cultures and traditions springing from close proximity to each other. Irish Americans have customs separate from those in Ireland, Jewish and Chinese Americans celebrate Christmas together (in that neither group celebrates Christmas), and African Americans have established their own unique culture in every corner of the country. For all the bloodshed it took to get here, I can only hope that this cultural mixing continues while also preserving each cultures own special traditions, truly making America the melting pot of the world.

#james baldwin #amy tan #gish jen #leslie marmon silko #american literature #short stories #ENGL 4430 #miistical murmurs

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hraeth-ethile · 1 year

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The Shigemi Administration is the name of the political group belonging to, and coordinating with, the current Japanese Prime Minister Shigemi Seiko. It was founded in 2018 to begin a long campaign to influence voters for the upcoming 2021. Seiko, who began the group after becoming the de facto head of the Shigemi Clan, said she was influenced by the American Republican party to rally votes through propaganda even long before an election progress has begun.

The Shigemi Administration faced early difficulties doing this, given its radically right-wing political views and the criminal histories of some of the administration's cabinet members. This changed when, in late 2018, the Prime Minister of Sweden - who won the first election on an openly fascist ticket since 1933 - publicly supported Seiko and her Administration. This gave her the gravitas she needed to outright challenge Japanese leadership on the local level.

After Seiko's first debate on live television, a poll was held that asked the Japanese public if they would support her policies - which included Imperialising the Japanese flag, bolstering the Japanese military, and disrupting the Chinese economy. When a similar poll was held in 2012, the majority of Japanese voters supported these issues at roughly 30%. After the debate, the poll showed that the percent of supporters rose to 77%. When Seiko was confronted about the poll results and why the numbers were so high compared to the 2012 poll results, she was seen saying: "… all I did was [sic] give confidence to the oppressed to act in their own favour."

This began a sharp rise in open fascism and Imperialism in Japan's rural cities and areas, which began to put up more far-right public servants for election. Taunts and threats from fascist citisens, often backed by Shigemi Seiko's administration, even led to the mayor of Niigata to step down in 2019. A sudden city election was held where a far-right mayor was elected to take his place.

In 2020, Seiko held a public address which promised that, in the 2021 election, over 100 seats in the House of Representatives and over 50 seats in the House of Councilors would be members from her administration whether she began to serve as Japan's prime minister or not, and that electing her would "simply make the transition that this change represents easier on the Japanese people."

The address and its promise was met with backlash from across Southern Japan, but the primary backlash came from Nagasaki's former mayor and previous head of the Shigemi Clan Shigemi Mao, who called for Japan to push back against Seiko, her administration, and any political solution that "comes from [sic] angry men who died for their failures."

This began a divide between the fascist, Imperialist, and far-right policies that were beginning to appear en masse in Northern Japan, the centre-left and unswayable parties of Central Japan, and the rising socialist, reformist, and communist groups all appearing in Southern Japan. This divide and its tensions were exacerbated by the addition of Italy's openly fascist president Pasquale Mussolini after his 2021 election and subsequent support for Shigemi Seiko and her 'Goldshirts' - a reference to the Blackshirts of early Italian fascism.

Soon after, the Japanese 2021 election began, and Shigemi Seiko won 79% of the vote. During her post-election speech, she swore that, on the day that she leaves office, she would "leave Japan's Imperial family with the power it deserves" with her, and that "[sic] Japanese influence, not China's, will shape the future of all of the East."

The Shigemi Administration, now in many ways part of the Office of the Prime Minister, has been slowly acquiring more power by influencing more local elections in the north of Japan. The most blatant display of this yet was in Sendai, where a 'school for Bushido' was fast-tracked despite its exorbitant cost after being funded by the Administration.

As of 2022, the divide between North and South tightens around Tokyo - unofficially turning the city into a 21st century Berlin Wall. Sendai is seen as the capital city that is the most far-right of the northern divide, while Hiroshima and Nagasaki are considered the vanguard cities most in opposition to Shigemi Seiko, her administration, and her policies and allies.

A 'mini Cold War' exists, now, where propaganda campaigns and clandestine skirmishes fight small and seldom-seen battles for Japan's future.

#Hraeth Ethile #HEW #History #Politics #Cities #Nagasaki #Hiroshima #Sendai #Japan

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mi6011alishia · 2 years

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Research on Social Justice

social justice

noun

justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society."individuality gives way to the struggle for social justice"

What Is Social Justice?

Social justice refers to a fair and equitable division of resources, opportunities, and privileges in society. Originally a religious concept, it has come to be conceptualized more loosely as the just organization of social institutions that deliver access to economic benefits. It is sometimes referred to as "distributive justice."

Social justice is a broad term, and there are many variations in how advocates apply the perspective. However, social determinants like the racial wealth gap or inequitable access to health care feature heavily in social justice analysis. Some applications related to social justice, such as critical race theory, have become a battleground for American politics.

Understanding Social Justice

The phrase "social justice" draws its roots from Christian theology, with the first noted use occurring in the early 1840s in Theoretical Treatise on Natural Law by Luigi Taparelli. Taparelli was an Italian Jesuit priest writing during the rise of Risorgimento, a 19th-century Italian nationalist movement, and debates around the unification of Italy.3

Taparelli’s version of social justice was simply an application of justice to social affairs and held that people should do what’s right based on a conceptualization of morality based on natural theology and religion, and for much of its history social justice has been a religious concept.3

Not all notions of social justice emphasized religion, though. With the social impact of the Industrial Revolution, the term grew. Later theorists would focus on social justice as a moral obligation for people within a society to work for the common good; the most famous example is discussed below.

Main Principles of Social Justice

Access

Equal access to social goods is one of the most fundamental principles of social justice. This holds that society's resources should be equally available to all. For example, many social justice theorists believe that people should have equal access to education, health care, and employment opportunities. Public servants can uphold this principle by ensuring that everyone has access to these resources.

Equity

Equity is the principle that people should have the same opportunities to succeed, despite any past injustices or systemic discrimination. This may mean that resources are distributed in a way that addresses the specific needs of underprivileged communities or people.

Diversity

Diversity is the principle that government and business leaders should be broadly representative of the communities they serve. This means that not only should there be women and people of color in positions of power, but also that minority communities should be equally represented in public institutions. On a policy level, this principle may entail prohibitions on discrimination or providing resources in multiple languages.

Participation

Participation is the principle that everyone in a community should have a voice in making important decisions. In many societies, public policies are set by a small group of powerful people, without consulting the communities they represent. This may have the unintended effect of excluding a large part of the community.

Public policymakers can address this shortcoming by consulting the advocates of minority communities and considering their needs.

Human Rights

The final principle of social justice, and arguably the most fundamental, is human rights. In addition to political rights, such as freedom of conscience, it also requires freedom from police abuse and respect for one's reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.

Areas of Focus

While social justice seeks to ensure equality and fairness for all, it may focus on those groups that have been the victims of historical oppression. The following are some areas of focus for social justice workers:

Racial Equality

Racial equality is one of the most common issues in social justice, and many countries have a history of discrimination or oppression of minority ethnic or racial groups. Members of these groups may be at an economic disadvantage or suffer from unequal access to education, health services, or other essential institutions.

Gender Equality

Almost every country suffers from some sort of gender inequality, whether in the form of wage gaps, glass ceilings, or other forms of gender-based discrimination. In addition, women are also more likely to suffer from violence or sexual assault. or face threats to reproductive rights. Gender equality also affects other rights, such as racial equality. Many social justice advocates consider this a key aspect of social reform.

LGBTQ+ Equality

Starting in the 20th century, LGBTQ+ rights emerged as another issue for social justice advocates. Members of the LGBTQ+ community face high levels of violence and discrimination and may be denied access to healthcare or employment.

Equity vs. Equality

Although they are both related to the distribution of social goods and privileges within a society, equality and equity have taken on slightly different meanings in conversations around social justice. Equality, in this context, means that people are given the same access to opportunities, regardless of historical or other forms of injustice that may alter how much someone can access those opportunities. Equity, in contrast, tries to account for an imbalanced social system by providing the resources to create an equal outcome.

It is social justice’s adoption of equity that most of its critics focus on, but those in favor of the concept suggest that equity is a vital part of ensuring a just society. Paula Braveman, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, for instance, has commented that “health equity” and social justice in health are interchangeable. The goal of social justice in health care, she implies, “[is that] no one is denied the possibility to be healthy for belonging to a group that has historically been economically/socially disadvantaged.”

Social Justice in Law

In law, social justice perspectives have become a touchpoint for the American culture wars. Critical race theory (CRT), an approach to law that actively seeks to account for how racial prejudices affect legal outcomes, has drawn particular outcry.

The term was developed by American legal theorists such as Kimberlé Crenshaw to analyze how racism is advanced by American legal structures, even in some cases in the absence of racist individuals. Central to CRT is the notion that race is not validated by science, and that the law has maintained an unjust order.

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