🗣 DIVERSITY IS NOT SAMENESS.

Okay. Because I've been saying... *semi*-similar for years, I'm gonna address this. The difference is I have no problem with colorblind casting. Keep doing it. It's a standard in plays and theatre ESPECIALLY, and has been since well into the early 20th century. The actual problem is not *ALSO* covering the lived experiences of Black people who did actually exist in these spaces throughout history. Because it gives the "anti-wokeys" aka the rebranded incel beige khakis tiki torch kkk/nazis means to be confidently ignorant about Black people being "forced" and "shoved" (and I could digress about the wording always being akin to sexual assault, because they always fear most what they'd like to be free to do to others...) into narratives where they *actually* existed, irl. ...And not always in the simplistic "slave, servant, underling" context. I recommend this college lecture about regular-egular Black Tudors living lives with jobs and families and everything, as an example:

And I think it's purposely suppressed not just to prevent the normalization of Black presence in actual historic spaces, but (and this I never see talked about) to keep white people feeling afraid divided from the other, and connected to wealthy white people (who hate them) and "always" in the gaze of the simple black/white morality of "past times" or mostly being "cartoon awful" racists or abolitionists, that's it... when it was SO MUCH WIDER and more complex than that. You never see true allyship depicted among the poor and disenfranchised among the immigrants, indigenous, and Black and mixed people depicted in media FOR A REASON. I remember reading about the Delany Sisters when I was girl, Black sisters who lived and worked successful professional fields in Harlem (notably never married!) who lived happily to 104 and 106 respectively. There were old photos in their biography of their Irish granddad sitting on the porch with a shotgun in his lap, hyper-protective of his Black wife and mixed kids and grandkids. It was actually not an uncommon a thing that (mostly) Irish women intermarried with Black men in the 1800's... ...And don't get me on the Black and mixed-race towns and communities.

All this to say "diversity" should not be the goal. ....Including the full truth of the past should be. And the full truth includes us all, in a multitude of capacities. Yall know this has been a hyperfixation for me for decades and there are so many pieces of media about REAL PEOPLE that I dream of snapping into existence that I do genuinely think would help society, racially and culturally away from the sad MAGAT place we are now. If you like homework, you can look up these names and places to get you started (not just in the U.S. BTW), Colletta Stewart Lai, Malaga Island, Gustav Badin (Sweden and I suspect was a queer man), Longtown Ohio, James Mink, Lucille Hunter (in the Klondike).... I have so many I have collected over the years.

TL;DR The issue isn't the colorblind casting. The issue is not *ALSO* covering the real people in history, of which there are A LOT...and especially where the whites aren't always cartoon racist, insanely evil villains/ or abolitionist helpers and Black people aren't always the slaves trying to get free or downtrodden trying to get civil rights or the first Black person to do something.

Today I literally saw someone say :

"Romance with a Chubby ? What next ? I predict that Benedict will have an Asian or a trans woman as his next love interest ! No, I'm kidding, I don't watch that crap."

I don't know what annoys me most about this comment. Fatphobia, racism, transphobia ? Or all 3 at the same time ?

A woman of strong build cannot be entitled to a beautiful romance according to this person ? An Asian woman and a trans woman either ? No because clearly, this person's concern is definitely not historical consistency (and those who continue to complain about it look really stupid because the series has very clearly assumed to be an uchronia since season 1), otherwise the description linked to Penelope's weight would not have been part of it.

What's the point of commenting on something like this under the season 3 trailer, frankly ?!

And for the record, yes, I hope Benedict's romantic interest Sophie is played by an Asian woman.

Other than that, I loved the trailer. Seeing Kanthony more in love than ever and Polin finally getting together is going to be an absolute delight.

This! Also I will never shout up about trans Sophie! This is idea is in my head since season 2. If we can not have queer Benedict, we at least can have trans Sophie. Bigots can die mad about

Also lmao the implication that there weren’t any plus size women back then.

Also *points to sanditon and the three Musketeers* also people of color have already been existing as main hero’s back then

to all the people who draw co Sherlock as a POC: i'm marrying you, you're right

GERTIE BROWN & SAINT SUTTLE “Something Good-Negro Kiss,” the newly discovered William Selig silent film from 1898 is believed to be the earliest cinematic depiction of African-American affection. Thanks to scholars at the University of Chicago and the University of Southern California, the footage is prompting a rethinking of early film history. The performance by cakewalk partners Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown is a reinterpretation of Thomas Edison’s “The Kiss,” featuring May Irwin and John Rice. The film was announced December 12, 2018 as a new addition to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry—one of 25 selected for their enduring importance to American culture. The 29-second clip is free of stereotypes and racist caricatures, a stark contrast from the majority of black performances at the turn of the century.

the last few actors who played Holmes & Watson being people of color 🙏

Conlon Bonner (Holmes in Sherlock the Musical); Himesh Patel (Watson in Enola Holmes 2); Morris Chestnut (Watson in the new series Watson CBS); Royce Pierreson (Watson in Netflix's Irregulars); Chris Yamez (Holmes in Fogtown); Lucy Liu (Watson in Elementary); Dean Fujioka (Holmes in Sherlock Untold Stories); Iwata Takanori (Watson in Sherlock Untold Stories); Yuko Takeuchi (Holmes in Miss Sherlock); Shihori Kanjiya (Watson in Miss Sherlock)

Roger M. Bobb to direct Hallmark Mahogany adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility with an all-black cast.

The period film which takes place in the early 19th century follows the two Dashwood sisters Elinore and Marianne and their widowed mother as they are forced to leave their rich family estate at Norland Park and move to Barton Cottage, a modest home on the property of distant relative. There Elinor and Marianne experience love, romance, and heartbreak while dealing with their new found poverty. 

The film stars Deborah Ayorinde (as Elinor Dashwood) Bethany Antonia (as Marianne Dashwood), Akil Largie (as Colonel Brandon), Victor Hugo (as John Willoughby), Martina Laird (as Mrs Jennings) and Victoria Ekanoye (as Lucy Steele). 

Executive Producers are Toni Judkins and Tia Smith. Filming locations are Bulgaria, Ireland and London. Sources say that Hallmark is devoting considerable resources on this first of it’s kind production which is slated to be released in February 2024.

(Source)

Oh man I was just talking about this!

Original link

[Image description: what's possibly meant when old literature says, "he was black."

1. He's a dark skinned sub-sarharan African (only picture of what we would modernly call "black")

2. He's a different religion: Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Catholic etc.

3. He's Middle Eastern or North African

4. He's a slightly tanned Southern European (picture of Antonio Banderas)

5. He's just a white guy but he has black hair and dark eyes

6. He has stereotypical "African" features, like full lips, a wide nose, or even just slightly curly hair (picture of Angelina Jolie)

7. He has an evil vibe about him (picture of Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars)]

This is what I mean when Jane Austen describes Marianne Dashwood and the Crawfords as dark/black!

Oh my God! 😭 You dropped this queen 👑

To think I thought I knew what ethereal beauty was before now. Laughable.

she’s so beautiful i had to include a few more photos

Her instagram is @queennyakimofficial !

Support Black Women!!! Support Black Womens Art!!! Support Dark Skinned Black Women!!! Support Dark Skinned Black Womens Art!!!

🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤

Pretty sure Guinness doesn’t keep records on skin tone but if they did I think Khoudia Diop would be a close contender

The two of them actually did a photoshoot together

You literally feel God seeing them. I love that they are warm and cool toned. What a divine match!

How to draw Black characters. Because it's way too obvious when you drew a white person and gave them Black skin.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRg6YsKN/

-fae

If you're an artist please listen to her. PLEASE. 🙏🏾 I cannot stress these tips enough.

Enola Holmes 2 SPOILERS

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As a Sherlock Holmes fan, I just can't with all this woke trend. Stop it.

Oh yeah how can they make Sherlock „Woke“. The same man who *checks the original ACD stories* campaigned for a child of color during the Norbury case.

The Sherlock Holmes who made possible a white mother is united with her black child again, and her new husband accepts the child as his own.

Such a woke non sense indeed!

i know this is just one post on tumblr but i am BEGGING people who can to be loud about strange world.

it is so fucking unfair for disney to not properly promote this movie at all and for it to bomb so badly in theaters like it’s doing just because it actually had genuinely good poc and queer rep! i am SEETHING about how they intentionally set it up to fail and i can’t imagine how the people who worked on the movie feel!

please be loud about it! please go see it if you can, tell your friends to see it, post about it on social media, get it trending, get as many people to see it as possible!

let the idiots at the top know we WANT better representation in movies!

it’s transparently obvious that they did zero promotion on this movie. my entire twitter timeline was people going “I’ve never heard of this until today?” plus a movie theater employee confirming they never saw any attempt to promote the movie:

After drowning in Encanto and Turning Red and Lightyear promos, and getting a decent amount of Raya promos - all films with prominent characters of color, including black women in Lightyear’s case - it kind of seems like a specific slight to the one movie featuring an unmissable black/white interracial marriage and a biracial queer lead who, spoilers! actually gets an (also interracial!) romance on-screen.

I’m sure tumblr will be quick to attribute Disney’s mistreatment of the film to the cute teen m/m subplot, but don’t sleep on the interracial relationship aspect - it’s not a fluke that the Respect for Marriage Act had to insist on protections for both same-sex marriage and interracial marriage. It’s both! It’s both.

Even looking to Disney’s most famous interracial relationship that features a black person - namely Tiana and Naveen - they followed the same pattern as the movie Hitch famously did, by making the black character’s love interest neither black nor white - black/black is seen as making the whole movie a “black movie,” i.e. alienating white audiences, while black/white would be even more of a source of controversy than a black princess alone had been.

Now here we are, over a decade later, and Disney’s still scared to promote a movie where one protagonist is in a black/white marriage and the other protagonist is that guy’s biracial kid.

Radio ads, huh? You know… the one type of ad where you can’t see what the characters look like.

Worth pointing out that there are barely any interracial relationships in Marvel movies (I think Spiderman with Holland and Zendaya is the only one).

No way! it is already in cinemas here in Germany and I haven’t heard anything about it until yet

Black hair appreciation on IWTV

AMC's Interview With The Vampire does such a great job showcasing the beauty and versatility of black hair. These are some a few of my favourite black hair appreciation moments on the show:

Bonus points for them styling Jacob's real hair instead of using cheap looking wigs like some other tv-shows do.

I live in Europe and the other day I was listening to some panel show on the radio and a guy said “Black people have this culture of-“ and a woman went “Woha!”

He responded “What?”

“I’m not comfortable with you saying black people”

“Why!?”

“Because that’s kinda racist. That’s what colonialists would call Africans. The black negros”

“But that’s what they call themselves!”

“In America. You can’t just say black people here. Are they German? French? Even if their skin color is the same they still have very different cultures depending on country. And were they born there or moved there from an African country? A Nigerian person living in Italy doesn’t have the same culture as a third generation Ugandan person living in Austria”

The rest of the panel chimed in and said yeah it’s weird to use a blanket term like that for any skin color.

I’ll have to say up front that this is not me saying that just because this is how it works in Europe that’s the right way and Americans are doing it wrong. We understand that talking about black and white people as a blanket term makes sense in the US because of how the country was created. A lot of people more or less lost their connection to their country of origin either because they were forced into the country or simply because time erased the memory. It makes sense.

But I think Americans and Europeans forget how differently we see things like nationality, skin color and culture. That’s how you end up with posts where a black American say “White people have no culture” and then white Europeans respond with “What the fuck are you talking about?” and post a million photos from traditional Europe.

People in Europe, no matter skin color, are very conscious of culture based on country because if you drive for half an hour suddenly people talk an entirely different language. The broadest you might divide people into is European, African, Middle Eastern and so on, but to just go black people, white people, and brown people comes off as racist here. Skin color is only brought up if it’s important or if that’s the only information you have to go on. Several times I’ve overheard a conversation along the lines of “Joe is American” “Who?” “The black guy who works at the station” And from then on Joe will be the American to people around him, only referred to as the black guy by people who knows literally nothing else about him. This is why Europeans ask “Where are you from?” if people have an accent or aren’t white. The answer might be as simple as “I moved here from Belarus” or a bit more complicated like “I was adopted from Korea so I’ve lived here my whole life but still have connections to my Korean family” When I lived in England I was asked ALL the time where I was from because of my accent. It was merely people showing an interest in me and trying to be polite by not oversimplifying me as a person by just calling me the Scandinavian.

Something that always perplex Europeans is how people are divided into colors in America. If you tell them Turkish people are considered brown they will lose their mind. “But…they just have dark hair? Yeah, SOME have slightly darker skin but I can get that color by being in the sun for an hour” And when Americans call Italians and Spanish people beige as opposed to white? Expect laughter.

Again, this is not me saying Americans are doing it wrong, just that it’s important to understand that this view of race and culture is not universal.

Europeans also know we fucked up a lot of places outside of Europe but we are very quick, relatively speaking, to forgive atrocities committed towards each other within Europe. Everybody were the perpetrator or victim at some point. Germany fucked up Denmark, Denmark fucked up Norway, Norway fucked the Sami peoples up. That’s why Germans aren’t immediately seen as Nazis in most European countries and why both Scandinavians and Brits joke about how Vikings used to raid England and kidnap people to use them as slaves. “We recovered, it’s fine!” This is the part that usually offends Americans because they think I’m saying black Americans should just get over it too which I’m definitely not. The American situation is not the same. I’m just explaining how it works within Europe amongst Europeans.

But yeah, I think we have a habit of forgetting how different our situations are and how some ways of categorising people make sense in one part of the world but not in others.

I think this is often forgotten, especially on tumblr

And this is also why representation of Europe and people of color in Hollywood movies can be really frustrating for European people

If Hollywood portrays Europe, it is always Britain, as the old fashioned white people, French as the lovers with the weird accent, Germans as the Nazis, Russians as the bad guys, and then we have Eastern Europe, who - according to Hollywood - all look the same and are all criminals. And more countries do not exist in Europe, according to Hollywood

And if Europeans say: „we would like the see a person of color in this movie“ Hollywood cast a black person. Which is okay of course, but for Europeans people of color means so much more

Princess Meghan is a poc f.e.

Or remember how Hollywood thought about re casting Magneto as a black man because being a Jewish Holocaust survived has no real relevance today anymore…?

Meanwhile, on Twitter...

Funny how racist trolls are mad at Rings of Power for changing the “author’s vision” by casting POC, but are ALSO mad at the Sandman series for casting POC, even though the author Neil Gaiman says that’s what he wants. Maybe it’s not about “the author’s vision” after all. 🤔