Jesse Williams, 2016 BET Awards (via thelightofknight)

black-ish made television history last night

Last night, black-ish brought us into the middle of the tough conversations black families have been forced to have more and more recently. It did so with the utmost thought and humor, all the while giving nuanced, important depth to the issues of police brutality — including the characterization of police.

“i’ll choose you. and i’ll choose you, over and over and over.”

I support Clexa but I recognize the problematic nature of the show regarding other characters

like or reblog if you agree

Bitter Harvest review (via mehlsbells)

@ t100 writers

Don’t act like you’re this beacon of queer rep when all you do is oversexualize queer girls and make queer boys act like brothers. Fuck you.

Why can we have a CL sex scene, but not even have Miller kiss his boyfriend when he’s sending him off into battle?

Why does Clarke need a fucking sex scene to prove she’s bi but miller doesn’t even get to kiss his bf?

IF YOU ARE OKAY WITH ROMANTIC AFFECTION AND SEXUALITY BETWEEN TWO WOMEN BUT NOT BETWEEN TWO MEN, YOU ARE HOMOPHOBIC

The last part of this post (presumably directed at The100′s creators) is about all the good stuff this post has in it. @ OP (and anyone reblogging this): Don’t act like you’re this beacon against homophobia/heterosexism, when you weaponize mistreatment of gay men against wlw protagonists and imply having a first priority bisexual protagonist’s arc include sex scenes is somehow sexist/mistreating women, while also, esp. in OP’s case, treating it as a factual conclusion that the het-read platonic male and female protagonists are in love, despite all evidence to the contrary. Ask yourself: Why does chastising JR for this require implying he’s doing something wrong by exhibiting Clarke’s sexual experiences with women. Why does that need to have anything to do with Miller/Bryan for you. Why are you implying in this post that if they don’t have the kiss, they shouldn’t have the bisexual protagonist’s sex scenes or it must be some sort of female objectification. 

Then let me know: are your motives as transparent to you as they are to me?

Jessica Jones is a racist show, especially anti-black.

Not only did they kill Clemmons in a very graphic way, they also made Malcolm an addict because of course they did. But not even that gross, racist storyline was his. Kilgrave made him so, to get at Jessica and she, in turn, used him. She put him in danger, she mocked his sufferings and made his addiction about herself. Frankly, it was. We were never shown him actually fighting, resisting to it. He was an addict and then, he was fine. Eventually, he became the support system of Ruben’s sister, another white girl willing to step on him if needs be. From beginning to end, Malcolm was a pawn and a liability, his efforts to insert himself on the narrative dismissed with a patronizing pat on the back. 

Luke Cage got off worse. This show was supposed to lead the way to his own show, premiering in  2016. Luke Cage, that historical hero, impervious to bullets, whose story matters so much as of now. We were introduced with is character through Jessica’s binoculars, as she stalked him. 

He is shown having sex with a black woman. Said black woman, it turned out, was cheating on her husband with him, allowing us to understand a bit more about Luke as he declines her advances. A straight-up guy, he “doesn’t do drama”. Never once is that woman shamed for her choices, however. She’s confident and upfront and challenges Jessica, calling her out on her obsession with Luke. Nevertheless, she is soon forgotten, set aside to let Jessica and Luke’s story begin. She was the only black woman with a speaking role in the whole series and her potential was already conveniently abandoned before the end of the pilot. 

From that moment onward, Luke is surrounded by white people. His colleague is a white guy and all his scenes are with Jessica. He has no world, no friends, no relations. He is utterly othered, rarely if ever sharing the camera with another POC and linked solely to Jessica.

Their relationship is physical, leading to many sexual scenes between the two. The spectator watches as a blooming fondness is born, a trust shared. Luke helps Jessica in many ways, his moral support giving her a drive and a new-found confidence in her abilities. That, in itself, is already symptomatic of a lack of balance in their interactions. Never once is Jessica here for him, to propel his story. So far, there is none to tell. He has no ties but her.

The truth comes out, eventually. Jessica killed his wife, a black woman once again set aside by the narrative to propel their romance. She killed her and never told him, even though she knew who he was. She tricked him, abused of his trust and only came clean because she had to. Luke doesn’t shy from stating how violated he feels, how betrayed. He is completely disgusted with the very though of having slept with his wife’s murderer, showing to the spectator how wrong Jessica’s actions were. Jessica raped him and there is nothing more painful to watch than his face as he realises what she’s done. Mike Colter plays it with such intensity and raw pain, it’s unbearable.

His plight doesn’t end here, however. Kilgrave finds him and learns about is relationship with Jessica. Because they could, the writers didn’t refrain from showing the former bewildered with the very idea of their  interracial entanglement, referring to it as a “pity shag”. He proceeds to take control of Luke, unbeknownst to the spectator. Throughout a whole episode, Luke is literally forced by the narrative to forgive Jessica, to stay near her and to offer his moral support, once more. He has no choice, no say in this. Yet, we are never showed that. His turmoil remains silent, the focus staying on Jessica and her relief at being once again the receptacle of Luke’s affection. His story and feelings are of little consequence. He is pushed back in the arms of his aggressor, by Kilgrave but also by the narrative. That state of helplessness, which is so often described as traumatizing and painful, holds only emotional weight when Jessica learns that him forgiving her wasn’t real. The consequences on his mental well-being aren’t worth dwelling into because, as per usual, only Jessica and their ship matter.

Knocked unconscious for the entirety of the finale (!!!!), Luke is powerless as Jessica holds him, kisses him and professes her love. Once again, he is but a silent witness, a barely consenting participant in that poor excuse for romance.

This show is racist and romanticizes the abuse of black people. And that’s not right in the slightest.

Torraine Walker | Dear Apologetic Racists: Cry Me A River

(via

america-wakiewakie

)

I want to buy a billboard and post this.

(via hersheywrites)

I am getting this question a lot. The Root wrote this article in August. 

1. Learn about the racialized history of Ferguson and how it reflects the racialized history of America. Brown’s killing is not an anomaly or a statistical outlier. It is the direct product of deadly tensions born from decades of housing discrimination, white flight, intergenerational poverty and racial profiling.

2. Reject the “He was a good kid” or “He was a criminal” narrative and lift up the “Black lives matter” narrative. Those who knew him say Brown was a good kid. But that’s not why his death is tragic. His death isn’t tragic because he was on his way to college the following week. His death is tragic because he was a human being and his life mattered. The good-kid narrative might provoke some sympathy, but what it really does is support the lie that as a rule black people, black men in particular, have a norm of violence or criminal behavior. The good-kid narrative says that this kid didn’t deserve to die because his goodness was an exception to the rule. This is wrong. This kid didn’t deserve to die, period. Similarly, reject the “He was a criminal” narrative surrounding the convenience store robbery because even if Brown did steal some cigars and have a scuffle with the shopkeeper, that is still not a justification for his killing. All black lives matter, not just the ones we deem to be “good.”

3. Use words that speak the truth about the disempowerment, oppression, disinvestment and racism that are rampant in our communities. Be mindful, and politically and socially aware with your language. Notice how the mainstream news outlets are using words like “riot” and “looting” to describe the uprising in Ferguson. What’s happening is not a riot. The people are protesting with a righteous anger. This is a justified rebellion.

4. Understand the modern forms of race oppression and slavery and how they are intertwined with policing, the courts and the prison-industrial complex. Black people aren’t enslaved on the plantation anymore. Now African Americans are locked up in for-profit prisons at disproportionate rates and for longer sentences for the same crimes committed by white people. And when we’re released we’re second-class citizens, stripped of voting rights in some states and denied access to housing, employment and education. Mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow.

5. Examine the interplay between poverty and racial equity. The twin pillar of racism is economic injustice, but don’t use class issues to trump race issues and avoid the racism conversation. Although racism and class oppression are tangled together in this country, the fact remains that the No. 1 predictor of prosperity and access to opportunity is race.

(see article for more)

If you are white, your job is to look, to listen, and to amplify the voices of people of color. This is not about you. This is not about your experiences and your view of this situation.

As white people, we are in no way able to comprehensively understand the vast scope and impact of institutionalized racism. We have a tremendous amount of privilege, and we need to use that privilege to amplify the voices of those who are actively being silenced.