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intheoryowl · 4 years ago

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Diversity in KOTLC

[While commenting on this post please don't post spoilers for Unlocked just yet. Thanks. This post may contain legacy spoilers. This post is a repost of my Wattpad post that I made in Sunflower Crown called Diversity in KOTLC, so if you’ve seen this already please feel free to skip it. This post lines up with MLK day, but it was originally posted in reaction to Shannon Messenger announcing the live action movies.]

[Edit: Okay, after typing this post up I realize that there are a few more characters that are POC, but they’re not prominent at all, so the representation is still miniscule. They were mentioned, like, twice throughout the entire series. So, my point still stands.]

What's one thing you notice about the photo above?

Oh, yeah. All the characters are white, expect for the last three in the photo, which are all conveniently tacked onto the end.

Let's address the elephant in the room for everyone in the Keeper of the Lost Cities fandom. Recently, I've been thinking a lot about how little diversity there is within the cast, especially within the main group. I've been meaning to make a post about this since the #BLM movement started up, but I never got around to it.

I've found that a lot of the people in the fandom have been incredibly shy about having this conversation, but I think it's really time we have it. The cast contains very little diversity.

Disclaimer: Before anyone comes at me for this post, I'd like to first say that I've been a huge KOTLC fan and a big fan of Shannon Messenger's work for a long time. This isn't meant to be any sort of hate post, but instead a conversation I think we all need to have.

Let's start with the format of the art up above^.

First of all, out of eight characters 3 of them are POCs (or not white). Wylie isn't even in the main group/doesn't really enter the story until much later in the series. The same goes for Linh and Tam. They're all tacked onto the end of the photo, like they're just add-ons.

These three characters are the only characters I know the race of that are POC characters. Out of the entire series. Yes, the entire series. [And I would say that's the case for most people that aren't superfans or recently phased out of the series before art was starting to be released.] I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan out there, but there aren't that many prominent characters in KOTLC, and just about every single one of them is white.

It feels like a last-ditch throw in when Shannon Messenger went *oops I forgot about diversity entirely!!*. I mean, think about it. Tam, Linh, and Wylie entered the series later on than everyone else.

The lack of diversity, quite frankly, I find ridiculous. And not even just because there are three characters out of eight in that photo (one of which that is POC isn't even in the main group, nevermind the original main group) are POC, and prominent characters. Not only is there a lack of diversity when it comes to race/features that aren't white, but Shannon Messenger also includes exactly zero LGBTQ+ representation throughout the entire series. There is nothing hinted, nothing said. Gender norms are never addressed in the story, and that's fine. But for there to be no gay/pan/aro/ace/freaking anything on the spectrum representation?? No trans representation? Non-binary? Hello??? I get that when she started the series LGBTQ+ characters might not have been something you saw in every single book, but even as new characters are added in we see absolutely no LGBTQ+ representation still. There's not even anyone questioning their sexuality or their gender identity. Nowadays, that's not only a huge part of being a teenager (I would know, I'm one), but also just something you would think is key in the identity of a character.

As a writer, when I start writing a book, one of the first things I do is make sure I know who I want my characters to be. Gender identity, race, sexuality, all of this - these are such fundamental parts to a character. Truthfully, i don't understand how you could just overlook them whatsoever. It's a choice you have to make, not a default setting that's already been turned on for you. I think - even to someone incredibly racist - that as an author writing a book, one would be aware of the outward appearance of their characters? Or the fact that all of the characters had one very certain thing in common? It's hard to miss, frankly, and it looks really bad.

There's really no excuse for it at the end of the day. You can't explain away the facts, and the facts are that the lack of diversity within KOTLC is concerning.

With KOTLC as well, the book doesn't even center around identity for the most part. It's fantasy, and that's what runs the plot, not someone's struggles with race. It really would've been just that easy for Shannon Messenger to throw in a few POC characters or people that weren't straight, maybe mention it in passing, and be done with it and we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Another thing I'd like to bring up is the microaggressive character arcs of Linh and Tam song, the only two out of the entire central friend group that are diverse characters. (they appear to have some sort of asian heritage, in case you never caught that. But I bet you did with their very distinctly Chinese last names.) When Tam and Linh first appear in the book, they're suspected delinquents and exiled for crimes to a school of people that have been outcasted from society. They're seen as outsiders. During the story, we see the both of them climbing their way up in the ranks through hard work & connections. unlike everyone else who is going to Foxfire from the start, and we don't see them as nobility at first at all. Not only do the twins come into the story late, but they start out being pinned as supposed criminals (for going to their school which they were wrongly exiled to) and being the underdogs.

Twins are also scorned and families in the Lost Cities with twins are highly stigmatized. Same thing, the only two Asian characters in the entire series and they're the ones who have to be scorned instead of the white ones.

I'm sorry, but that rubs me the wrong way. it seems incredibly microaggressive to me. You're telling me that the only two characters of color [in the main group] are portrayed this way by accident? You couldn't have chosen any one of your fourteen white characters to play the role? Please.

Also, this might be a reach, but is there colorism also present in the KOTLC cast? The type of Asian that Linh and Tam seem to be (Eastern - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc) have a very light skin tone. Throughout all of KOTLC, the only skin tone darker than white is Wylie's character, who is obviously African-American. There is no one that looks Latina [okay, there is, it's Jensi who was mentioned twice in the first two books and never again], a different kind of Asian, Romanian, Indian, Middle Eastern, nothing. Actually, you know what, it's not a reach. You're telling me that objectively based on facts, there is only one character out of the entire KOTLC universe that's skin tone is darker than paper? That's the standard?

To that I say: get outta here.

I'm not convinced that Shannon Messenger - as much as I love and adore her writing and her book series - ever truly cared about diversity and inclusivity among her characters. There's no representation other than straight, white, male, female, two Asians, and a single African American character (out of anyone who actually matters). That's it. Statistically speaking.

That's ridiculous.

[This is a later edit: someone in the comments also pointed out that the Lost Cities are located all over the world, meaning that having a mainly white cast also is whitewashing? This only gets worse the more you think about it, ugh.]

I understand that the majority of the KOTLC fanbase is very young. Believe me, I do. I'm probably one of the older fans that has been here for a while/still is here. Most people my age have moved on to fangirling over the Umbrella Academy or something. I get it. But I do believe that even twelve year olds can understand what I'm saying, stay informed, spread awareness, and think critically.

One of the reasons I think Shannon hasn't been called out nearly as much for the lack of diversity and representation in her stories is because she has such a young readerbase. That's fine. I don't expect people that are ten and twelve to be thinking about any of this. It never occurred to me at the age, so why would it occur to you unless someone else brought it up first?

That said, now that I have brought it up, I think that the least you can do is have conversations with your friends, tag a few people, and think critically about the casts of your favorite books/people you stan. If you're not speaking up, it makes you look like you don't care that there's absolutely zero representation and diversity in the KOTLC series. And you should care.

Keeper of the Lost Cities is a very white, straight series. What does this mean? It means that it's inherently racist, likely colorist, and not currently supportive of any LGBTQ+ people on any LGBTQ+ spectrum. People out there just like you (if you're white) aren't seeing themselves in stories or media. Instead, they're being told that only if you have European heritage or a lighter skin tone can you be a hero. It's harmful. And we need to speak out against it.

[Not to mention that there are no different body types. This post was just on core character identity, and nothing else. As my friend StickyCarpet put in a conversation, what about religions? Do all elves believe the same things? There's very little identity variation between characters beyond their personalities.]

The reason I want to speak out so strongly now, is because as you may know, KOTLC is being made into a live-action series of movies. On screen, it's going to be even more visible and in-your-face that there's no representation. You know what that says to everyone who wasn't represented at least a little bit (or well)? It says we don't see you because we don't approve of who you are, which is just such an awful message to send. In the movies, it's going to be super important for especially younger readers to see themselves on screen. I don't want these movies to just be another movie chock-full of straight white people. It's time for change. This was never something that should've been the standard, so we need to try extremely hard to change it.

By no means will that magically fix or amend the fact that Shannon Messenger chose to put just about zero diversity into the story in the first place, but it will at least show that she's trying beyond throwing a few new characters with different skin tones in after people start calling her out for it.

Keeper of the Lost Cities is my favorite or second favorite series, and it was (and always will be) a huge part of my childhood. I'm a huge fan of the series myself, but I want to make my opinion on this subject very clear and encourage you to form your own opinion on it. I don't have instagram or socials, but I do have a large platform on Wattpad to spread awareness with. Please spread the message.

Please, if you can, tag people from the fandom in the comments. Share this post. Reblog it on tumblr or post it on instagram. We need to get the conversation started. It's not enough to just sit here and pretend like we're all okay with the fact that the series we all love is grossly unrepresentative/not diverse.

In the external link, you will find a carrd leading to Ways to Help & be a part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, including ways that don't involve money. In my bio, there's a link that goes to all crisis resources around the globe with links to causes. Please feel free to share and utilize both links.

Thank you very much for reading & (hopefully) spreading the message/awareness with me! Your favorite series and author(?) possibly being racist is something that's harder to come to terms with, even for me at my age, so please don't blame yourself for everything and just try to help as much as you can ♡

[Please feel free to reblog and repost on any platform anywhere as necessary. Spreading the message regardless is much appreciated!]

#diversity #KOTLC #movies #inclusivity #representation #LGBTQ+#racism #bookseries #fantasy

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popwasabi · 6 years ago

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One Marvelous Scene: “No Tears For Me?”

For those who follow a lot of YouTube writing channels you might have noticed a series this week put out by its top influencers titled “One Marvelous Scene.”

Much like how Nick Fury did at the end of “Iron Man,” in preparation for this weekend’s “Endgame” (EEEEEEEEeeee!!!) the channel Nando v. Movies tasked several other channels in doing a video about their favorite/most thought-provoking scene in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This “One Marvelous Scene” could be anything from the iconic “I’m always angry” line from Bruce Banner in Avengers to an analysis of Captain America and the larger use of military ads within the series.

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(Seriously, this is a little troubling when you think about it...)

Though I was, unfortunately, not called on to be apart of the writing Avengers (#sadface), the series did make me think about what scene has stood out the most to me in this series which now spans 22 movies (24 by the end of the year). Was it Cap’s iconic “I can do this all day line” that changed my perception of the character forever, Thanos’s epic entrance in “Infinity War,” or Cap and Bucky’s emotionally charged battle with Iron Man in “Civil War?”

No.

The scene that has stood out to me the most remains the only moment in any of these films where I almost cried (manly tears, damn it!) and that scene is Erik Killmonger’s journey to the Ancestral Plane in “Black Panther.”

The Ancestral Plain is my favorite setting in this film by a wide margin. It highlights a very spiritual and unique space in the MCU canon and contains the movie’s most emotionally charged moments. T’Challa’s own journeys into this realm are, by themselves, great scenes I considered choosing for this write-up as they highlight the arc of the character in his feelings toward his father and lineage. But Killmonger’s journey is especially powerful and shows why he’s regarded, by many, as the series most compelling villain.

(With all due respect to the Mad Titan of course. I’m speaking of course of Josh Brolin.)

The main theme of this story, to quote another famous Marvel character, quite clearly is “With great power, comes great responsibility.” In this case Wakanda has tremendous power, wealth and influence but they have chosen to hoard it and keep secret from the rest of the world. This negligence is highlighted first by Nakia earlier in the movie explaining how Wakanda can do so much more with the resources they wield but T’Challa chooses not to intervene because of “traditions.”

Erik’s arrival and subsequent takeover of the kingdom of Wakanda shows how that isolationism can have consequences. Erik is right to call out this kingdom’s hypocrisy and if this were any other type of movie he might’ve even been the main character in this story. Think about it: a prince rightfully points out injustice in a society, he is then killed without trial by his brother, his son then raise himself into the perfect warrior so that he may exact retribution and correct this flaw within the kingdom. Doesn’t that like the beginnings of a hero’s journey?

(*Menacing rap theme music intensifies*)

But it’s when he ventures to the ancestral plain that we really see the depth of this cruelty and the tragedy of how this society turned its back on one of its own. We see Erik revert back to being a child in this journey and see’s his father once more. This is an important because it shows how Erik once was, innocent, and through this we begin to understand just how far his fall has been and all because of one selfish, apathetic, irresponsible action.

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When Erik’s dad asks him “no tears for me?” and he responds “Everybody dies. It’s just life around here” it becomes quite clear just how cruel it was for T’Challa’s father to leave him behind. The king, who T’Challa looked up to and admired, left a boy to fend for himself in a harsh world, with no one to help or guide him and for all intents and purposes appeared to never even attempt to go back and check in on him. And this wasn’t just any child; this was a blood relative, his nephew and he essentially left him to fend for himself because he wasn’t “one of them.” The creation of Erik Killmonger was entirely avoidable and yet it happened because Wakanda’s king wielded his privilege and influence of his kingdom irresponsibly all in the name of “tradition.”

In this way the film brilliantly highlights, especially later on when T’Challa returns to the ancestral plain, how king T’Chaka is the real villain of this film. When T’Challa tells his father and the rest of the former kings that they’re all wrong for turning their backs on the rest of the world it truly sends the message home how when you’re given a great power it is your responsibility to help others with it. Combine this genuine moment with Ludwig Gorransson’s Oscar winning score playing in the background and it’s hard not to get a little choked up during this tragic moment.

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(Finally! An original soundtrack worth purchasing from the MCU!)

Contrary to popular belief, villains aren’t born villains in the real world; nobody comes out of the womb an evil, vindictive person. Evil people are created, often by even the most well-intentioned of people through negligence, cruelty and apathy. There’s a reason why MLK many decades ago said he feared “white moderates” more than he did the actual racists. It’s because those folks chose to turn their backs instead of using their privilege to help because it was convenient, much in the way T’Chaka did.

In a series that has largely chosen to cheapen most of its sincere drama with quips and bad jokes, this scene was a tremendous breath of fresh air for me when I saw it the first time. If this scene had been directed by almost anyone else in the MCU chances are there would’ve been at least one reference joke in here somewhere (“Ancestral Plane? Like am I going to see a Force Ghost or something? Derherherher.”) The emotional impact of this scene hit’s you like a sledgehammer when Erik’s dad says “No tears for me?” and thank Bast director Ryan Coogler didn’t try force in any bathos for cheap laughs.

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(If you need a primer on what bathos means watch this great video by “Just Write”)

The MCU has done a better job in recent outings (mostly) with creating genuine moments of drama but at times still feels like they can’t help themselves. I want the MCU to be less afraid of itself in that way. We care about these characters and their stories; we don’t need a pop culture reference every minute to keep us invested in the story.

These films, space cowboys and spandex super heroes and all, can be so much deeper than the MCU allows it to be. “Thor: Ragnarok” is basically the same story as “Black Panther”; A soon to be king learns that his father wasn’t exactly the man he thought he was, a long-lost relative comes to usurp his throne and through this learns to be a better king and leader. The only real difference (besides the setting and characters used) “Black Panther” is sincere in its dialogue and doesn’t shy away from the tougher subjects.

(We get it, it’s funny but c’mon...)

The Ancestral Plain is a powerful setting in “Black Panther” that helps complete arcs for its characters but its through Erik’s journey do we begin to understand the film’s main message. It’s a tragic scene and one that still sticks with me each time I watch the film and, in this day, and age we currently reside in in this world it feels very relevant as well. It’s one of the main reasons why “Black Panther” remains my favorite MCU flick to date and overall one of my favorite movies of the decade.

So While “Endgame” will certainly dominate at the box office this summer and more than likely be a huge crowd-pleaser I do hope that the MCU learns from this film as it travels into its new future. “Black Panther” showed you can tell one of these Marvel stories without adding a punchline in every minute and still be a huge success. Hopefully future films in this series understand this lesson too.

Glory to Bast. Wakanda forever. This is One Marvelous Scene.

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enigmasong · 6 years ago

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Honestly, the more I think of it, the more disappointed I am with how Doctor Who episode, Rosa, handled the Civil Rights movement as a whole.

It did a Rosa Park biopic just fine, but placing the entire movement on her shoulders for this one action was just misleading and wrong, incorrectly assumes that the movement had all their eggs in this one bus basket, and erases all the thousands of people who fought and died against this social injustice on their own terms with their own actions.

And I'm not gonna blame this on the writer here. What caused this was the 'great man history' mentality; the idea that Very Important People are the ones that shape all of history. And this is a mentality Doctor Who tends to follow (likely in part because British imperialism, but mostly because biopics happen to be an easy narrative hook). So they run on the assumption that because a name is in the history books, it's because they were Very Important and did something no one could've done.

But that's not what Rosa Park's story is, because what she did was something black people all over the south were doing constantly and in more places than buses. The point of her story is that it gives a face to all that - an example for people to look at as they're being told that was what was happening all over. And that *is* very important, but it's still not her being unique and special in what she did.

And thing is, you can see that shining through in the episode, with the scene of her and MLK and others organized for the movement and other scenes, but they still can't resist putting the entire history of Civil Rights on Rosa's shoulders when in reality, the most that probably would've changed was the name in the textbooks.

I'll also point out that the characters were also only running on that assumption.

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idemandoolong · 6 years ago

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Three wars and some presidents couldn’t convince America that Blacks are people, too. So you won’t, either. Oh, and Italians and Asians have blood on their hands. Happy MLK Day!

Ok, so we’re going to begin with the “abolition” of slavery. And the reason I put it in quotes is because the 13th Amendment slyly states “…except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted…”

Why is that important? Because that’s the loophole courts used to basically continue slavery. They would charge Black men with crimes, give them unfair trials, then sentence them to jail. From 1865 to 1964, states could (and would) legally deny people employment solely based on race, and until 1968, states could (and would) legally deny people the right to housing solely based on race. So slavery was over on paper, but contrary to many people’s beliefs, things didn’t magically become better for Blacks overnight.

So think back to the days when slavery has just ended. Former slaves were illiterate and unemployed. Many remained in their hometowns because they didn’t really have any other place to go. They took whatever jobs they could, and these were often the jobs the Whites didn’t want. And yes, they were severely underpaid. As a result, Whites would deny them decent employment and housing, charge them with vagrancy, then throw them in jail. This went on for decades. And was perfectly legal.

But let’s back it up to the end of the Civil War. The Department of War established The Freedman’s Bureau, which was an agency to help former slaves and poor Whites as the Civil War was coming to a close and the South’s defeat was imminent. It was officially founded on March 3, 1865, the South surrendered on April 9, 1865, and Lincoln was shot six days later.

Though the Freedman’s Bureau had good intentions, of course, many Whites opposed it. Including President Andrew Johnson. Some of the things the Bureau did were to establish schools (which later became Historically Black Colleges & Universities), help families that were separated during slavery reunite, provide job training, establish hospitals, and help Blacks with legal cases since the chances of them of getting fair trials were slim.

By late 1872, just seven years after being founded, Congress’s support of the Bureau had been waning and all of its efforts were discontinued. Five years later, the Reconstruction Era ended. This was an era in which the US attempted to literally reconstruct itself after the Civil War. The Freedman’s Bureau was a large part of the era, as were the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Additionally, Blacks were elected to state and federal positions during this time.

Now, this time is very important, as this is when the South began to identify with the Republican Party, and the North began to identify with the Democratic Party. Until then, Republicans would be what we would consider “liberal,” and Democrats were what we would consider “conservative.”

During the Civil War, when Northerners were Republicans and Southerners were Democrats, the North spent a lot of money to support the Union, and this in turn made many businessmen there wealthy. Because they were wealthy, they were then able to influence and to take part in the government. These wealthy White men were not too interested in supporting Black rights, because they did not believe government spending money to help such a small number of people would help them to maintain their money and power. As this is happening, as stated before, the South (Democrats) are opposed to the efforts of Reconstruction--especially the Freedman’s Bureau.

The federal government’s role in people’s lives began to diminish as wealthy White men helped to pass laws to make sure they themselves had as much freedom as possible to do as they wish with their money. See how this is tied to the dissolution of the Freedman’s Bureau?

And what’s even more sinister, more and more land in the Midwest and West of the country was being carved up and given to Whites (after it was taken away from the Native Americans), but Blacks were not allowed to have any of that land, let alone jobs, healthcare, education, and housing.

Now that we’ve got established, let’s fast-forward to WWI. After the War ends, Black soldiers return home and expect to be treated much better than when they left. I mean, they did put their lives on the line for the country…no, for the world. They return to the United States and realize very little has changed. As a result, the Great Migration ensues. Thousands upon thousands of Blacks leave the South and head North (and some went to California) where things aren’t exactly paradise, but they were a lot better than the South. This in turn is the catalyst for the Harlem Renaissance. Blacks had a swell of pride and their culture flourished. Angry White Southerners tried to stop Blacks from getting information about the North, and they even passed laws to make it difficult for Blacks to leave.

Now we’re in the 1920s. The economy is doing exceptionally well, but then the Great Depression happens. Republicans are blamed, so people began voting for Democrats. In fact, Blacks began to switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party because Franklin D. Roosevelt established programs to help those affected by the Depression—and as we all know, Blacks were affected a lot worse than Whites were.

So how did the Italian-Americans play into this? Well, let’s put this on pause and rewind. It’s before WWI, but after Reconstruction. This era is referred to the Gilded Age. During this time, may Europeans immigrated to the United States for a better life. Fine. Nothing new there. Well, as the United States has always done, it discriminated against them. The Irish were discriminated against. The Polish were discriminated against. The Eastern Europeans were discriminated against. And of course, the Italians were discriminated against—especially those from the southern part of Italy, because they tend to have darker skin due to the Moors settling there for thousands of years. But I digress.

The dark-skinned Italians are being discriminated against in the United States. To combat this, many of them began to point to Columbus as proof that they did not deserve the poor treatment they were receiving. This is around 1892…the 400th anniversary of Columbus landing in the Caribbean. While America is celebrating the anniversary, Italians are saying, “See? We Italians aren’t so bad after all!” This is despite the fact that Columbus sailed for Spain…not Italy. And this is despite the fact that the establishments in the New World made Spain richer…not Italy. Now I’m not saying Italian-Americans deserved to be mistreated, but to use Columbus as proof to show that Italians can do wonderful things is…specious, at best.

But at any rate, Italian-Americans used Columbus to escape discrimination, and it basically worked. But they were about self-preservation. They saw that other people (especially Blacks) were being mistreated, but it was more of a “Well as long as the Whites aren’t mistreating me, I don’t care.” This sort of established racial tension between Blacks and Italian-Americans in places like New Jersey and New York City which, unfortunately, continues to this day.

Let’s bring it back to the Great Depression and the Democrats. The Republicans are blamed because people are saying, “If you Republicans hadn’t been so greedy over the last several decades, none of this would’ve happened. We need the federal government to make sure this doesn’t happen again!” The Democrats take over and establish social programs to help pull people out of financial ruin. Those who are for social programs tend to be Democrats, and those who are for limited government tend to be Republicans. Which is where we are presently.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Great Depression is happening, World War II breaks out, the United States enters, and the economy does well because of the social programs, and because people cut back on spending to help the war effort. The Axis is defeated, and Black soldiers return home thinking, “Ok…THIS TIME the White people have to respect us.”

Wrong.

Enter the Civil Rights Movement.

We’re now in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Keep in mind, racial discrimination is still perfectly legal. And also, this is where the Black family begins to crack. Before this time, as with all races, it was much more common than not to have an intact nuclear family: married parents and their children living together. However, during the 1960s, things for Blacks began to shift as far as their families are concerned. With the establishment of welfare, if there was an adult male parent in the home, families could not get welfare benefits. This was not just for Black families, but it happened more often for Black families because the men were, as stated before, being removed from their families for various reasons—and all of those reasons stemmed from the lack of opportunities Black men faced.

It’s virtually impossible to take care of your family if you’re not allowed to have a job, live in certain neighborhoods, or vote. Black women were literally being paid by the United States government to remain single mothers. Their daughters went on to become single parents, and then their daughters, then their daughters, and so on, and so forth.

What does this have to do with Asian-Americans? I’ll tell you.

As the United States began to reform its laws about race, it began to relax its immigration laws. Up until the mid-1960s, Asians were practically prohibited from entering the country and becoming citizens. Once those laws were repealed, they began trickling in. Now is it a coincidence that the United States began to actively improve its relationship with East Asia and Southeast Asia as tensions between it and Russia began? Maybe…but it’s also mighty convenient.

In other words, some (including myself) would point that the United States did not want to have tension with Russia and pretty much all of Asia as Cold War tensions escalated during the 1960s. With the immigration restrictions of Asians lifted, the United States conveniently began saying such kind things about Asians—hence the “model minority” stereotype. Americans would say things like, “Oh, Asians are so smart. And so polite. And so clean. And so hardworking. Please, come to this country.” Because Asian-Americans weren’t really established in the country before the 1960s, they missed all the discrimination that Blacks and Europeans faced. They didn’t really begin coming until most civil rights legislation had already passed.

This isn’t to say Asian-Americans aren’t discriminated against—it’s more to say they didn’t (and do not) face the type of mistreatment Blacks face.

Also, keep in mind, when Asians were allowed into the country little by little, only the best and brightest were allowed. This helped the United States to seem correct when they would point to them as the “model minorities.” It’s easy to be seen as the best when you’re only allowed to send your best over.

With Asian-Americans settling in the country, many of them wanted to fully integrate and be accepted by Whites. Families would encourage their daughters to marry White men, as this was seen as the paragon of acceptance. To this day, many Asian-American women “prefer” to date White men. They’ll openly say this, but then also say, “But I’m not racist.”

Yes, you are.

Also, Asian-Americans would discriminate against Blacks to gain White acceptance. Remember, they weren’t really around to witness slavery, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and the Civil Rights Movement. Instead, it was like, “Hey…if I want Whites to accept me, all I have to do is do what they do. Hmmm…looks like they don’t like Black people for whatever reason. Fine. Neither do I.” This is also why there tends to be underlying tension between Asian-Americans and Blacks in many parts of the country.

Allow me to point out what happened to Latasha Harlins. On March 16, 1991 in Los Angeles, a 15yr old girl named Latasha Harlins went into a convenience store owned by a Korean-American family, the Du family. She put a bottle of orange juice in her backpack and held the money she planned to pay for it in her hand. The matriarch of the Du family, Soon Ja, accused her of trying to shoplift despite the fact that Harlins was at the counter with money in her hand. An argument ensued, and Du grabbed Harlins and tried to snatch her backpack off. Harlins hit Du three times, causing Du to fall back. Du then threw a stool at Harlins. Harlins picked up the orange juice botte and set it on the counter, and Du snatched it from her. As Harlins turned to leave the store, Du reached under the counter for a handgun and shot Harlins. The bullet hit her in the back of the head and she died instantly.

You can look up the security footage on YouTube.

During the trial, Du stated she killed Harlins because she feared for her life, so it was in self-defense. Two eyewitnesses disputed this, and so did the fact that Harlins was shot from behind as she attempted to leave. Du was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, but rather than getting the 16yrs of prison, which was the maximum sentence, she was sentenced to probation for five years, given a $500 fine, (approx. $920 today), and told she had to complete 400 hours of community service.

The trial was overshadowed by the infamous Rodney King beating, which occurred two weeks later, which in then turn led to the 1992 LA riots after the police officers were acquitted after being videotaped beating him. Some believe (including myself) that the riots were also inspired by the outcome of Du’s trial.

Ok, you got all that? Let’s take it back to the late 1960s. The Civil Rights Era is coming to a close, and something called The Kerner Commission is published. Never heard of it? That was intentional.

Basically, The Kerner Commission was an investigation to figure out why Black people were the way they were. Moreso why they were rioting every so often. But it also answered why were their families falling apart? Why was their income so low? Why were they less educated than everyone else? Why were their neighborhoods violent?

You’d think it’d be obvious…but sometimes, people don’t like to admit they had a hand in creating a problem. A lot of White people would say, “Well slavery and all that is over. They’re just lazy. That’s why things are the way they are for Blacks. They’re not trying hard enough.”

But the Kerner Commission debunked all of that. Federal agents investigated the circumstances Blacks were in and concluded, “This is America’s fault. We’ve been screwing them over literally since the day they got here, and now we’re pretending we don’t know why things are so bad for them.”

Why are they poor? Because they’re denied jobs.

Why aren’t they educated? Because they’re denied education.

Why are they criminals? Because they can’t get jobs or go to school.

Why are their families broken? Because we paid their mothers to be single.

And what did the government do once the Kerner Commission was complete?

Nothing.

They just said, “Oh…well…ok…” and that was that.

What the government wanted to hear was: “Black people are lazy. They’re naturally move violent than everyone else. They don’t want to work. They hate school. They like drugs. They like to break the law.” But when that didn’t happen, the report was shelved.

Now it’s the 1970s, and Blacks are experiencing another swell of pride and culture. They’re letting their hair grow without altering it in any way, the “Black is Beautiful” slogan is popularized, and Black fictional characters in media are standing up to White people...which was unheard of before. This led to the 1980s where Blacks and Whites were slowly integrated in mainstream TV shows and films. You didn’t really see racially mixed casts before then. It was either virtually all black, or virtually all white.

Once Hollywood realized Blacks actually are marketable on their own, Blacks were able to produce their own projects with Hollywood’s help. From the mid-1980s up until the late 1990s, you saw many Black sitcoms and films doing quite well, and for the first time ever, the Black middle class was getting attention. Before this time, Blacks were typically depicted as working class or upper class in the media. People did not really think a Black middle class existed.

Unfortunately, even today, Hollywood is not too comfortable with Blacks who don’t “act Black,” so to speak. Those who run the media believe the only Black person who is marketable is one who portrays some sort of stereotype. And what happens is people believe these stereotypes are true while ignoring the millions of Blacks who aren’t in the service industry, who aren’t drug addicts, who aren’t criminals, who aren’t poor, who aren’t violent, who aren’t entertainers, etc.

Whenever a Black person comes along and says, “Actually, most Black people aren’t like that. And I’m living proof,” the response is, “Well you’re not REALLY Black, though. You act White.”

Presently, these attitudes continue. Many people still ignore history and say the reason Blacks are the way they are is because they’re not trying hard enough. Many still say, “You’re not really Black if you don’t [insert stereotype here],” and many discriminate against Blacks in order to subconsciously gain approval from Whites.

And even present-day Freedman’s Bureau tactics are reviled. Many non-Blacks think Historically Black Colleges & Universities are racist and unfair. They think anything specifically designed to help a Black person is unfair. They think if a Black person is successful, then he/she doesn’t really deserve it and must’ve had some unfair advantage nobody else had. But when you actually do your homework, you’ll see these “advantages” don’t really help Blacks as much.

Whites were given land, loans, jobs, healthcare, education…and this has helped them to prosper for generations. Asian-Americans benefited because they largely came after racial discrimination was outlawed. But Blacks? Soon as they get a scholarship, it’s “not right,” and it’s “reverse racism.” Do you honestly, truly believe a $5,000 NAACP scholarship will boost all Black people beyond the ramifications of slavery and legalized discrimination which lasted from 1619-1968? Do you know how long that is? That’s 349 years. That means Blacks have had complete freedom for 51 years now, but have been in the country for 400 years.

So don’t sit there and get upset that a Black kid got into Harvard although his SAT score was a little bit lower than a White kid’s. Don’t call it “unfair.” Don’t have a fit because the BET Awards exist, but the WET Awards don’t. And don’t call your state representative to complain that the black girl got the job over you despite being a little less qualified when you’re literally benefitting from the fact that her family wasn’t allowed access to basic necessities for 349 years.

Do your homework.

Well, you don’t have to, because I just did it for you.

Black people have a long way to go, and sadly, those alive today will not live to see the day where the consequences of slavery and discrimination are long gone. A scholarship here and a job there is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the end.

And it’s definitely not “unfair” considering what Blacks have had to endure just to get it.

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apexart-journal · 3 years ago

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Keegan Xavi in NYC, Day #?? I’ve got 9 days left

I got back from DC last night. Got off the bus on 8th, asked someone which was was 7th Ave So I wouldn’t walk in the wrong direction. Walked to Herald Square, jumped on a yellow line, was home in like 10 minutes. Maybe 15. Walked in the door. I was home. And it felt more like home since I got here because for the first time last night I got comfortable enough to act like I was at home. Which meant the floor exploded with my instant piles as I unpacked: shoes off and in the pile, paper souvenirs for possible collage projects over here, dirty laundry there, coat goes here - not in the closet, but over the arm of a chair. When I am comfortable I am messy lol But I finally got comfortable enough to relax a little and just like I do at home, I sat in silence and just THOUGHT about things. The problem was back home, I no longer liked the things I was thinking about it and was desperate for NEW thoughts, ideas, higher vibrations of intellect and emotion. A lot of those things I HAD to think about, cuz that’s just life... but my thoughts were getting fucking stale to me and I am so grateful for this head change.

D.C.:

- it’s so like downtown Mpls with its trees, bushes, flowers, etc, and antiquated bank-looking buildings everywhere... but also kinda desolate the way downtown mpls is on the weekend. no one actually lives in the area I was in. Everyone was a visitor/tourist like me and I heard maybe 5 or 6 different languages while there. That part reminds me of LA and what I miss about there. The Architect Hotel was super cute, efficient and to the point, just a bed in a clean room with nice moldings and trim. teh first night was overcast, but still good for walking. went to the chinese american museum, then got lost getting to Dupont circle, but found it, went to a bookstore, bought a salad, went back to the hotel.

the next day i was MISERABLE because it poured all day. I mean, I was out there pounding pavement, but was not a happy camper at all. but i’m a soldier, I figured it out. The MLK Jr. Memorial Library was super peaceful and had exhibits on the 4th and 5th floor and an outdoor terrace area that had a bit of an awning so you could sit there even while it rained. I didn’t sit there tho, just passed thru. The exhibits were actually heart-breaking . The one that talked about the Civil Rights Movement and King’s assassination was just sad because ... how much has really changed? We seem to be going backwards, actually. When I teach I always want to make connections so young people can understand why learning about the past is important for the future, and I am doing my best to learn what to say anymore.

Blah. Let’s keep it moving.

The other exhibit was also depressing - signs form around the world from people who did not have homes. My father was homeless for years before he died. He was a genius man in so many ways, but never assimilated into American culture. I don’t know how he would’ve done in his birth country either. He may have been a strange man in any time or place. But yeah...

I really loved the movie “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once”. That was good.

Then the next morning, I was just DOWN when I woke up. It wasn’t pouring the way it had on Saturday, but still drizzly and that’s how my mood felt. grey and drizzly lol I did not want to go to yoga class AT ALLLLL..... but I actually got there super early cuz it was boring just sitting in that tiny hotel room brooding on how grey I felt. And it was like an ADVANCED YOGA CLASS... I’ve been doing my lil 5-Tibetan routine for years, but it’s super chill... but this class.. well, I am sore today and it felt good.. just what I needed. And the rest of the day just got better.

So Casey Smith came and picked me up and our time together was so uplifting for me. I adore honest, funny, and intelligent people. Our lunch was at the perfect outdoor taco spot with the cutest dog that ever existed (ever) at the table over from us. Talking to another apexart fellow was so helpful because no one else would understand the uniqueness and intensity of this particular program. He gave me a brief tour of the neighborhood including the white house, that church where TFG held the bible upside down, BLM Plaza, then an art school where he used to teach at. It was like go go go, but we got a lot in before I got dropped off at my bus. I hope Casey and I get to hang out again someday. Sofija too... I’d love to see her again.

So this morning I got up and took my time getting ready (like hours and lots of coffee time) before I ventured out for household basics. This part also felt like being at “home”. Trashbags, tp, etc. I also picked some Murphy’s Oil Soap because that’s what I’d do to these floors if they were mine. Outside, union Square is poppin!! I went to Trader Joe’s, then to CVS for the stuff Trader Joe’s doesn’t have, then through the farmer’s market before sitting on the steps for a little while. So sunny and beautiful today. That little breather in DC was kinda like a dream-within-a-dream thing. It gave me space to process outside of NY before I go back home. Very helpful.

#Keegan Xavi #Inbound from Minneapolis

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poofbeegone · 3 years ago

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Across cultures, darker people suffer most!🖤 On what would've been Dr. King's 93rd bday, the "why" remains!🤔 "That is where we are today. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis." #drking #mlkbday #mlkweekend2022 #mlkweekend #ivebeentothemountaintop #civilrightsmovement #mlk #lorrainemotel #room306 #nationalcivilrightsmuseum #Memphis #wearememphis #bringyoursoul #poofbeegoneblog (at National Civil Rights Museum) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYxEyyrrTCY/?utm_medium=tumblr

#drking #mlkbday #mlkweekend2022 #mlkweekend #ivebeentothemountaintop #civilrightsmovement #mlk #lorrainemotel #room306 #nationalcivilrightsmuseum #memphis #wearememphis #bringyoursoul #poofbeegoneblog

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goosegrewup · 7 years ago

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Graduation Day: A Walk to Remember.

I was two hours late to my law school graduation.

I missed the entire graduation rehearsal. I had to fill in the phonetic spelling on my name card during the processional. I never even got a chance to take my class photo.

I was late to my graduation from law school because I spent four hours locked in my bathroom, crying in the palms of my hand.

IT WAS ALL GOOD A NIGHT AGO.

The night before graduation, I was on top of the world. My friends had driven as long as twelve hours and four states to be at my ceremony. My daughter spent the evening making signs to hold up for me in the crowd. My boyfriend had gone out of his way to make the weekend all about me. I had seven of my best friends, four kids, and two dogs all crammed into my 2-bedroom apartment. My kitchen counters were lined with red party cups and to-go food containers. My younger sister stayed out until the wee hours of the morning, grocery-shopping for my graduation breakfast. We had all the necessary ingredients for the weekend of my dreams.

I never actually ate my graduation breakfast because depression doesn’t allow you to acknowledge your appetite, nor your achievements. My boyfriend left that morning to get dressed for the ceremony. I clearly remember kissing him goodbye and poking my head out of my room to tell everyone that I was hopping in the shower and I’d be ready in 10.

10 minutes turned into 30, 30 into an hour, before they realized that I had never resurfaced from my “shower”. I could still hear the occasional banging on the door of my room and wiggling and jerking of the handle, over my wailing.

Unfortunately, it was too late. I had already planted myself on my bathroom floor and I was quickly unraveling. Here I was in the midst of friends I’d had for 20+ years, who had traveled from multiple states to support me, and I still felt completely alone. The towel I was wrapped in doubled as a Kleenex, the hair in my face damp with tears. It was one of the biggest days of my life. I had a full agenda, yet I was emptier than I had ever been before.

I was realizing that I had done this by myself. I had successfully dragged myself (and my daughter) through law school regardless of the obstacles. I had past-due tuition, for her and for myself. I had missed class when she was sick. I had battled through a divorce, three moves, two schools, and endless hours of commuting in Atlanta traffic. Yet, I had accomplished this huge feat on my own, and on the day that was meant for me to be recognized, it hit me harder than I ever imagined.

“Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.”- Michelle Hodkin

TRUTH IS: I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS.

The reality of it was: I did it alone because I didn’t have a choice. I graduated law school early. I didn’t find out I would be walking in graduation until three months before the ceremony. A month later, I signed my first post-graduation employment contract for my dream job (which involved moving yet again). I immediately started circulating my graduation information to my friends and family. I will never forget the excitement I got from my friends’ responses, immediately making travel plans and reservations, as if they were graduating too.

I also remember the lack of responses from my family members. I had long sense realized that I would be celebrating this degree without them. I had a tumultuous relationship with both parents during my childhood. At the age of 28, I now know that my mother, a mother of four, always wanted to be a mother. She just did not want to be a mother to me. She loved my father beyond words. His departure (mixed with the fact that I am his spitting image) made it impossible for her to love me through the resentment. She never forgave him, herself, or me.

My father is the most celebrated man in the State of South Carolina. Renown educator, 150K salary a year, PhD holder, husband of 15+ years, astute Christian, and father of five happy, successful children (not including me). My father called me one month prior to graduation to wish me a happy birthday. It was the first time we had spoken in almost a year. He also wanted to let me know that he was so proud...of my younger brother who would be probating the next day.

He’s a Superintendent of a large school district and stands firmly on promoting and supplying higher education for every student. He made sure tuition was paid for every one of his children who matriculated through college. I have now completed my third degree on my own. Someone should tell my father that help would’ve been nice, especially considering that law school costs about 150K.

The nature of my relationships with my parents have caused extraordinary strain on other relationships adjacent to theirs. Neither of my parents chose to be a part of my matriculation. Therefore, neither of my parents were invited to share this graduation with me. Consequently, neither of my paternal and maternal grandmothers were able to attend. My grandmothers, the women who raised me and made me who I am, did not watch me walk.

I’ll likely carry that with me for the rest of my life.

“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real”- Cormac McCarthy

THREE WAS ALSO A LONELY NUMBER.

Graduation isn’t for the graduates anyways. It’s for your family. It’s to allow your family to celebrate you, to be proud of you, and to brag about you. I didn’t know that I’d miss that until that morning on my bathroom floor.

I had sent out numerous texts (well in advance) inviting all the family members who I wanted to be there. I created the cutest invitations and itineraries to make sure everyone had all the information.

Only two people cared to respond. Those two people didn’t even show. The morning of the ceremony, only three family members had committed to showing up, including my own daughter. I had completed law school. I finished an entire year early. Yet, I was walking the stage in front of a crowd full of family…none of which belonged to me. This was a moment that not even the seven years of therapy could have prepared me for.

I was late to my law school graduation because it took me that long to gather myself and come to terms with the fact that no one was going to show up for me. There would be no photos of me with my mother standing on one side and my father on the other. No one was popping up with flowers and balloons. I boo-hoo cried for hours grasping the reality that I had completed this on my own, I was walking in graduation on my own, and I would continue to navigate through life on my own.

AT SOME POINT, I HAD TO GET UP.

Now that it’s over, the only thing that matters is who/what got me to graduation that morning. As I said, I had a house full of my closest friends who had traveled from all over to be there for me. Also, something told me I had to walk to show all the professors and naysayers who doubted me that I was capable. But more importantly, I thought about three people who needed to see me walk the stage that day.

Desmond Cox: As a teen, all of my weekends consisted of playing spades, drinking brown, and spending time with my boys. Dez taught me everything I never needed to know: how to “freak” the black-and-mild, how to play the big joker, and how not to get in the car until a man opened the door for me. To this day, he is the most respectable man I’ve ever known.

January 21, 2013, the police found Dez’s body in the parking lot of his apartment complex next to the dumpster. It changed my life. If he were still here, he would’ve turned 29 on the day after I graduated. He also would’ve yanked me off of my bathroom floor and made me walk in my graduation. I had to get up for him.

Malcolm X: It is not lost on me that I graduated on Malcolm X’s birthday. Although I can understand and appreciate the strides made by MLK, Jr. as the face of the Civil Rights Movement, I have continuously lived my life in honor of his “not-so-cordial” counterpart. El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz was both conscious and courageous, constantly speaking about how higher education is a form of freedom. If I was going to have his face pinned onto my graduation stole, I had to walk to honor the people who came before me. I had to get up for them.

Most importantly…

Aryn Bryce: If ever I owed this graduation to anyone, it’s her. My daughter sat in classes with me, ate dinner during lectures, and watched court coverage until 9:30 on school nights. She had sacrificed just as much as I had for this degree and she needed to see me walk. I had to get up for her.

I am also forever grateful to my boyfriend for literally putting me into my graduation dress one leg at a time. I’ll remember that moment for years to come. At the end of the day, I had walked the stage in front of all of my friends and I was proud of myself for doing it. I still felt a shortness of breath when we entered through the crowd of families snapping photos like paparazzi. “Graduation depression” is real and it crippled me on one of the most important days of my life. But, I won.

In my proudest, loneliest moments, I learned to be grateful for the people who were there instead of dwelling on the people who weren’t.

I also learned that I was enough…all by myself. Congratulations graduate. You did well.

“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.”- Malcolm X

#graduation #graduation day #depression #law school #law student #juris doctor #mother #motherless daughters #fatherless daughters

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jesterravencroft · 7 years ago

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Questions I was asked to answer

I reblogged a post earlier that had 30 questions within it and my best girl @curvybihufflepuff asked me to answer all of them within a post, so here I go!

1. If you could do anything without consequence, what would it be? I would go streaking. That’s really weird but I think it would be a freeing experience to run around somewhere naked and without consequence.

2. If you could put yourself into any show, which show would it be and why? Oh shoot I think I’d put myself in Friends. Solely because I relate to Chandler Bing on a spiritual level and I’d love to banter with Ross.

3. What do you want to name your kids? If I have a girl, I’d love to name her Eliza Odette or Matilda Kimberly. If it’s a boy I like the name Jarvis. But I was told I can’t name a child that.

4. What is your lifelong dream? I wouldn't really call it a lifelong dream but It’s been a dream of mine since I was 12 and it’s to go on my church’s outreach mission to Romania and then to Tanzania.

5. How long have you known what you wanted to be? Ha. Jokes on you all, I have no idea what I want to be.

6. If you were a Youtube personality, what would you do and what would your name be? I would either like to have a channel where I give advice or I just review things and my name would be J.L Darvill

7. What is your favorite color? Yellow!

8. What is your favorite number? My favorite numbers are 9 & 15

9. What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day? My favorite thing to do on a rainy day is to curl up with a fuzzy blanket in front of my window with a cup of tea and listen to Glenn Miller and his orchestra.

10. What is your favorite animal? My favorite animals are Quokkas, Capybara, Sloths and Koalas

11. What is your dream job? A scout for the NHL or a head coach for an NHL team

12. If you had a choice, would you rather meet the characters, or actors, of your favorite show? Is both an option? Because I’d love to meet both the characters and the actors of Luke Cage and Daredevil.

13. What time period would you like to live in? Either the 1930′s-1940′s or the mid-1960′s

14. What time period would you least like to live in? I would hate to live in the 1800s if I’m honest

15. One positive thing you do every day? One positive thing I do every day is just remind myself that I am enough as well as the promise I made to my little brother which is ‘I will keep fighting, no matter how bad life gets.’

16. What is your favorite form of art? I love renaissance art, along with abstract art and photography.

17. What is your all time favorite movie and why? My all time favorite movie is French Kiss (1995) with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline and it’s because I first saw it at a time when I was really struggling and I related to Meg Ryan’s character, Kate and her fear of leaving.

18. What tragedy in history would you reverse if you knew things would remain the same in present time? I’d stop MLK’s assassination because I feel as if he would've helped change the world even more than he already did.

19. If you could live anywhere for a day where would you live? I’d live in Washington D.C

20. What is your favorite name? I love the name Odette but I also like the name Maureen and Clarence.

21. What is something nice you have done for someone recently? I try to do nice things for people everyday so I don’t really have an answer for this one.

22. What is something nice someone has done for you recently? My puppy brought me a rock, and my girlfriend bought our movie tickets.

23. What is your favorite scent? (Can you explain it?) My favorite scent is lavender, rosemary and vanilla. It’s all very calming to me.

24. Favorite landscape? Upstate New York in the autumn.

25. Favorite Song? Can’t Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley Georgia on My Mind - Ray Charles New York, New York - Frank Sinatra Always on My Mind - Elvis Presley Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley

26. Song that gets most stuck in your head? Les Yeux Ouverts by The Beautiful South or That’s What I Like - Bruno Mars

27. Your parents favorite songs? I honestly don’t know my dad likes Kansas but my mom loves Il Divo

28. Favorite coin? The 50 cent piece.

29. Favorite dollar bill? ex. $10 $20 $5 My favorite dollar bill is the $10 because it has Alexander Hamilton on it.

30. Favorite thing about answering questions? It allows people to get to know me better!

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indd40041020202021 · 4 years ago

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Mid term presentations

In some ways I wish that I could drop this grad project and just read and write about other design projects instead. I’m taking a few classes to complete my curatorial minor degree this semester and it’s really invigorated my love for writing and my opinion that design needs more critical writing and archiving (something that I love to do). Anyway, that is what has been going through my head, as well as the pressing weight of the past year and it’s slow and arduous continuance into this one. Needless to say it has been really hard to pull some kind of positive motivation out of myself to get this work done. For the mid-term presentation, I felt like I hadn’t really done that much work, at least comparatively to my normal pace. I dropped a class to focus more on core, but I think it has taken up to this week for me to really gain traction again in thinking about what this project is.

one thing I’ve been aware of is the complex ideas I’m proposing with my project, and the difficulty in explaining what I’m trying to do. I’ve learned a lot in my current writing class about an audience and tempering your work for readability, and this has inspired me to instead show what I’m trying to do through story.

As Sophie and I spoke a few days before the presentation, I felt that my point maybe was too convoluted in description, and felt that I couldn’t say all that I wanted to say about what I was trying to do. As well, I felt that through explaining my work, contradictions arose that didn’t feel true to my project either. I needed to succinctly get these ideas and points of entry down in a way that brings people into an understanding where I don’t have to explain the point, because I’m not doing a good job if I have to supplement the meaning.

I was originally thinking about a counterfactual involving the boom of plastic in the 50′s, as this was a catalyst to mass manufacturing once injection molds and mass replication was possible. Sophie said that maybe it was too obvious to choose plastic as the villain. I also talked about my leech - a species that is currently extinct but unknown (like a Schrödinger's species, maybe it existed, maybe it didn't) and that I was thinking about it being used for blood testing in humans, as we would have to feed it our blood to get results, a kind of symbiosis. Sophie asked why it would be a tool for humans when we could biohack ourselves, and whether that would be something I would look into.

This project is about decentering the human, and I felt that directing any kind of spotlight back to human achievement would be detrimental to the intended meaning of the work. Although, I always find myself coming back to these reflexive loops of “not about the human but Im human and writing it”, it feels like a bit of puppetry, but I don’t know if that can be avoided in these nature futures scenarios.

I rethought plastic as a catalyst too, and after reading Against Performative Positivity by Dana Abdullah during my reading group, I was reminded of the politics of efficiency, and felt a renewed connection to it’s criticisms, especially related to how I’ve been feeling the past few months. While I knew about Taylorism, I did a bit more of a dive into his work and found that models of efficiency was a much better catalyst than plastic, as plastic in the 50′s already had the inertia of Taylor and Ford pulling it forward. So I sat down and wrote a story for my presentation and supplemented it with both guiding reference photos and photos of some of the process that I’ve been going through. The following is my script and photos with annotations of what I was intending for each section of the story.

____

A Technological History of the 20th Century

[If I gave myself more editing time, I would’ve specified ‘20th Century in the West”]

In the late 1900’s, as the Industrial Revolution began to gain traction in the West, Fredrick Taylor published a text called The Principles of Scientific Management. This work, encouraging factories to go further in their exploitation of workers by valuing efficiency systems over living beings, enraged the general public and incited the Factory Riots of 1911. Lead by the “Imagination Effort” and supported by the Luddites, the Factory Riots destroyed many major factories, including Ford and General Motors, who were both car manufacturers at the time.

[In reading the first few pages of the Principles of Scientific Management, it’s incredible to see that Taylor’s efficiency models were actually in hopes of a less wasteful manufacturing, not only in manpower but of finite resources. He quotes Theodore Roosevelt on conserving nature and talks about our water and forests vanishing. He then goes on to say that the most wasteful resource of all is man power, and talks about how idle thought and reliance on memory are detrimental. I found this really interesting, as it seems to be in good faith for a better world, but is really taking power away from man, our abilities to memorize and the value of imagination. For this reason, I imagined a protest group of people who also read between the lines here and called themselves “the Imagination Effort” in reference to his quote about the wastefulness in ‘efforts of the imagination”. I wanted to incite an event that would be detrimental to the way manufacturing historically succeeded, so I thought of taking down Ford and GM as two huge factories at the time, even making reference to a general public in this other world not knowing who they are (”who were both car manufacturers at the time”)]

The Factory Riots changed the way the West developed. Former President Theodore Roosevelt later applauded the work of the Imagination Effort for their advanced theories on conservation through thoughtful consideration of other beings.

[Something I wanted to try was using old photographs and repurposing them in another world. Many of the comics around Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation efforts were in jest, but what if these were representations of people actually appreciating his respect for nature. I imagined that a political figure supporting a cause would bolster the effect of such cause, and be more realistic in their continued influence on world events (similar to the JFK/MLK alliance during Civil Rights protests in the 60s)]

Throughout the 20th century, science shifted from the pursuit of knowledge of, towards the understanding of knowing with. Forestry and Oil industries began to downturn as cellulose bioplastics and bio-fuel began to boom in the 1950’s. This integration and new respect of nature and technology lead to locating many new species previously on the brink of extinction due to past industrial concepts.

[I wanted to show that I have been making some things - I was able to get this algae grow set-up working and bubbling away on my desk. Do I know what I’m going to do with the Algae yet? no. Does it look futuristic with purple lights? yes. In all seriousness, I am trying to get to a thinking through making mode that I often push aside and thought that by creating this algae set up and watching it grow, that I might be able to access some meaningful reflections on algae and all of its superpowers (bioplastics and bio-fuel being an example). I also thought of it as a potential air purification device, as algae is an incredible carbon capture capacity, higher than trees in general. I also wanted to be careful of my wording and to avoid words like ‘discover’ regarding the finding of other species.]

As part of a connection trek in Ontario’s Boreal Forest, scientists met the Photuris Hirudinea, the Firefly Leech. Both an omnivore and an amphibian, the Firefly Leech has an incredible ability to identify and communicate complex chemical chains in hemoglobin samples through bio luminescent markings, and has taught humans how to read other species emotional states with more nuance.

[The leech is something I want to stick with so that I can: revision and elevate the leech, open conversations about what has been lost through natural destruction, the power and abilities of other species, and because I want to make something physical and believable - and I think I can do so with some 3D modelling, silicone molding, and basic electronics. I imagine this to be swimming - actually swimming - through an aquarium tank during the exhibition. The name, photuris hirudinea, I was wondering whether I should include latin naming as this world is about breaking down hierarchies, including taxonomical ones, but I thought I would leave it as I believe that some human tendencies or leftover patterns would remain. I chose ‘photuris’ for the Firefly, as they are one of the only land species that use bioluminescence and I wanted the leech to be amphibious ,and hirudinea refers to the leech. I think it brings a bit of believability to this other-world species to have it rooted in real species. I wanted to state that it is an omnivore as well, because both plants and animals carry hemoglobin, and I thought that this was a good way of talking about it’s chemical abilities not only for human use but for other species as well. Finally, because I have the license of another world, I moved away from ‘health data’ to emotional data, something that is unvalued in our world, and something that Taylor explicitly called ‘wasteful’ in his writing. I also think that science valuing both empirical and theoretical data, quantitative and qualitative research, phenomenon and nomenon, was something I wanted to infer.]

In the 1980’s, Michael Strano developed nanobionics, and the interweave was born. Through non-invasive pre-sensing, developed with aid from the Firefly Leech, Strano was given permission by the Giant Kelp species to rewire their mRNA structure, allowing internal tRNA transfers to be visualized on the kelp’s surface, and for information transfer between kelp leaves on touch. This created a network that allowed other species to input, transfer, and communicate information, due to the Giant Kelp’s generosity.

[I focused heavily on word choice in this section. Dr Michael Strano really is the person who helped developed nanobionics, but I took the doctor from his name as academic achievements and social stature may be separate in this world. I had been playing around with the idea of printing a circuit board onto seaweed. What would it mean if we had a natural backing for something that we base most of our technology on? What if a circuit board wasn’t rigid? What if this was floating through the sea, oxidizing and naturally going back to the Earth? What if it was grown into the kelp, genetically implanted with their permission? Could the firefly leech help us communicate what other species wishes and boundaries are? I wanted the language to remove the dissecting power of the ‘scientific’ human into more of a conversation and mutual agreement between species. Stating that the kelp is giving permission for us to alter it, while leaving out exactly how that happened, I think it is a way to turn these ideas of hierarchies on their head. I imagine someone outside of design thinking this is absurd, but on the off-chance that it makes someone think outside of themselves, I think it’s important. I want to run down my reasoning with my friend Rylee, but mRNA, the messenger RNA, is a single chain, meaning that it can attach to another through tRNA, the transfer RNA. This is way over my head if you asked me specifics on it, but in theory I think it’s close to something imaginable, especially with what they are called (messenger and transfer, similar to internet terms anyways). I also wanted to change the internet to the interweave, as net invokes ideas of capturing, whereas weave invokes ideas of support.]

Through advances in bacterial memory storage, the Interweave of the kelp forest expanded in it’s knowing and expanded it’s form - seen in giant kelp clouds that are easily seen from shorelines all over the world.

[Bacteria holding memory is a real thing, and I was wondering what that would mean if we had known about it earlier (if we had appreciated other species earlier). I think there’s something really compelling about living memory storage. I also thought about the agency of other species, if the interweave allowed other species to interact in their own ways, I assume there would be some information transfer between other species, and maybe some learning. Could kelp gain the understanding to have floating clouds networking above the water too? I think this is the most far out idea of the group but I wanted to show some preposterous ideas for ideas’ sake. Imagination is a big part of this project, and I think a lot of people are afraid to use their imaginations for fear of looking stupid, but I think it’s one of our greatest abilities!]

As nature and technology continued to grow together, human involvement in it’s developments became extraneous. Communication has become increasingly nuanced, beyond the early 20th century notions of speech and body language. Knowing between species has evolved, and contributes to other-than-human species developing many of the technologies that we interact with today.

[I wanted to show current day symbiotic relationships in this slide: clownfish and anemone, algae and lichen, trees and fungi, and of course, my monitor lizard engineer. I like the idea of proposing that these species connect without us, without our intervention, and that there are so many other dimensions of communicating between species that we do not pay attention to. I didn’t go into specifics about current day technology in this world because I didn’t have any in mind while writing - but I wanted to allude to the idea that many other technologies made by humans and some made without humans exist in this world.]

While we can appreciate other species and how they have helped support us through the years, we can only imagine what may have been if the Imagination Effort had not risen up in defense of our earthbound kin way back in the Factory Riots of 1911.

[With what I currently have, this is how I am imagining the gallery set-up - an aquarium with the leech swimming around, with a didactic stating that the aquarium is just for show and that they live freely in the wild. I also thought that I could create a simulation of a kelp interweave branch, simulating connections through lights. I didn’t include the algae because I’m not quite sure what it means yet.]

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presentation feedback:

I’m happy with the feedback overall, I think the story aspect really helped people understand the point of my project, which has been my biggest hurdle in the past and going into this presentation. Donnie brought up a good point about what it would mean to have these future moments happen now or present day. I find it quite a bit harder to actually imagine from the point that we’re at now, I’m not sure why but it almost feels more... practical in a sense, I would want to avoid inventing something that becomes an actual usable artifact, like Auger’s Tooth Implant, where it was meant as a critical piece of work but was considered seriously by the public.

Here are some of my miro responses:

“Love it. Seems kind of speculative evolution-y. See Dougal Dixon “

I think speculative evolution is definitely similar. I looked up Dougal Dixon and recognized his work from Speculative Dreaming. I really love how he was able to create these worlds as dunne and raby say, through tempering speculation, even though he’s talking about 50 million years in the future. I think the issue with it is that 50 million years in the future is so far forward that I have a hard time caring about something that far forward. 100, 200, 300 years I can understand, that is something that I could see through a genealogical sense and understand, but 50million years is unreachable in understanding what that frame of time actually means. I think while Dixon is talking about the scientific evolution over time, I am talking about species that already exist in this time that we just don’t know about or have already extinguished.

“ whimsical and unique, I look forward to seeing more! “ Thanks!

“ so effective and well composed - the narration + the performative... I am so taken with the compelling affect of active story telling. AR?”

I’m glad this came across as I wrote this story the day before the presentation, haha. I want to avoid AR - I focused so heavily in VR last semester and found that the learning curve was taking away from my actualization time - that my fidelity level would not catch up in time for the show. I do appreciate AR and VR though, but I was fully immersed in it last semester and it’s just not right for this project at this time with this deadline.

“ I imagine your final project book laid out as a mock history textbook “ I actually really want to print a book for this project. A cumulation of writing about process and planning in the first half, and the story and final work in the second half. It would be more of a monograph and not part of the exhibition itself, I just want something really nice that I can shop around after I graduate and when I’m applying to my masters.

“ @Lauren will you still be doing another workshop around this new counterfactual world? Maybe a writing workshop? I would love to write a story around this as a workshop! It's such a fun idea “

I love this idea - I did receive a grant last semester that I haven’t used yet. Maybe I can do a workshop where I send out a prompt through the mail and ask people to write a story around where they think it came from? I don’t know, and I don't want it to seem ad-hoc - But I have this money and I would love to spend it somewhere. I don’t know really! “ I love how you brought nature into design, especially in. an urban setting. I am excited to see what comes next! “

I’m not sure if I understand what they meant by urban setting, but Im happy they enjoyed it.

“ I researched "Monsanto" company which is a huge seeds company having 30% market share in the US. One of their experiments was combining the fish’s gene and some veggies... When you talked about bio technical history, it came up in my mind. I think something that related to our life directly but hidden science facts would be good to see in the exhibition as well. “

I like this comment because I was not thinking about Monsanto in any way, but I’m glad it came up. Monsanto is a great example of when species’ agency is not considered, and these genetic experiments are purely for profit and are usually detrimental to both people and the environment. Is there good genetic hacking? I’m attending a bioart talk next week, maybe they will be talking about this - but I’m really happy that the story made them think of something else in our current world. That is the intent of this work is to relate to now and talk about these issues and why they are issues.

“ Lauren! Your project brings me so much joy! Your story telling and creativity is amazing and I love how it brings these ideas of nature and humans coexisting in a way that it currently does not. “

This was really nice, thank you!

_____________

Overall I’m happy with the response - was hoping for a bit more constructive feedback.

I’m going to talk to Bobbi in the WIP lab next week to talk about how to make the leech happen, and am feeling that maybe the leech is enough of an anchor to base my world around - maybe.

Anyway, I’m going to take a break from school for a little bit this week to try and reset and drag some motivation from inside myself for the last few weeks of my degree.

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pumpkinsadlatte · 7 years ago

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Buns

Because I’m poor and cannot draw, I’m writing gift fics for my friends this holiday season!

Next up is @slcyer / @gcrdens (I’ll re-tag your regular URL after the holidays), who specifically requested “Write me quality tai and young roob stuff.” I wrote you Tai and Young Roob, but I can’t guarantee that this is all that quality.

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to favorite rose daughter :)

"Whatcha makin'?"

Ruby's voice had honestly startled Tai: he'd thought the five-year-old was taking a nap. Yang certainly was: she'd been knocked out on the couch for the better part of the day, this cold was hitting her hard. He closed the fridge with his foot, setting the ice cube tray beside the bowl on the counter, then picked Ruby up and balanced her on one hip to let her see.

A bowl of shredded chicken and diced carrots and celery, an ice cube tray full of cubes of what looked like solidified broth, and twelve small lumps of bread dough on a plate. All sitting beside the bamboo steamer, a little bowl of flour, and a pile of parchment paper squares.

Ruby may not have recognized the other ingredients right off, but she knew that dough. That dough, next to the steamer, meant one thing.

"Buns!"

"Yep."

She looked over the bowl, tray, and plate again, and, in a very small voice, asked a question that, in hindsight, Tai had been expecting to hear from her for awhile now. "I help?"

"... y'know what? Sure," Tai nodded, giving the child a slight squeeze before setting her back down and walking across the room to grab a chair for her to stand on. Instead of setting it up at the counter, though, he first directed her to the sink. "You're gonna need clean hands first, though."

After Ruby's hands were sufficiently washed, and the chair moved over to the workspace, Tai floured the counter and divided the lumps of dough between them, handing her six of them and keeping six on his side. "We have to flatten these first. Do you know how to do that?"

"Uhhhh..."

He grinned a little, picking up one of the lumps. "Just do exactly what I do, got it?"

Ruby mimicked him, taking a lump of dough into her little hands. She trained silver eyes on his movements, watching how he rolled the rough into a ball between his hands. Copying almost exactly how he pressed the dough flat against the counter.

Once she finished her first lump, she looked up at Tai as if to ask if she'd done it right. He looked over, poking at different parts of the dough, before shaking his head a little.

"Close, sweetie, but here, watch again." He rerolled his dough, flattened the ball again, but made a show of the step that followed. He pressed the outside edge of the round flatter with his fingers, leaving the middle somewhat raised. "You have to keep the middle a little thicker so the filling doesn't leak out. The middle needs to support the whole inside of the bun, so there needs to be more of it."

"Oh."

"But it was a good try. No one does it perfect the first time. Just roll it back up and try again."

It took her a few tries, (Tai had actually finished his half of the dough before she even got to her second round) before she finally managed it. She halfheartedly pushed three of her dough lumps over to Tai, letting him finish them while she fumbled through the ones she'd kept. As she finished hers, he placed each piece onto a square of parchment paper and set them aside.

Noticing that Ruby looked more than a little discouraged, Tai nudged her shoulder a little with his forearm to get her attention before picking up the ice cube tray to dump out the cubes onto the newly-emptied plate. "You remember how Yang and I fill buns, right?"

Her eyes lit up, and she nodded quickly. She'd watched them do it so many times, and once or twice, she'd gotten to help with that part.

"Okay." Tai held out a spoon, which Ruby took. He normally would've rationed out ingredients with chopsticks, it was how he normally cooked, but Ruby was still using training chopsticks. "We've gotta put a little spoonful of filling in each bun, then one of those cubes, then another spoonful of filling. Why don't we do a couple together, then you do the rest while I close the buns up?"

"Okay!" Ruby made sure to watch closely this time when she copied Tai's movements, keeping the filling of the bun all in the middle with her first spoonful, then picking up a cube. She became sufficiently distracted, however, when she felt it. It felt squishy. "What's this?!"

"These are chicken soup buns," Tai explained, laughing. "That's the soup part."

"Ewww, feels weird."

"Yeah, it does. But it's got all that yummy soup flavor in it, so we need it."

Ruby giggled, pressing the cube into the filling and covering it with another spoonful of chicken and veggies, before sliding the whole thing over to Tai for his approval. When he nodded and picked up the bun to close it up, Ruby beamed brighter and set to work on the rest of the buns, her tongue poking out of her mouth in concentration as her eyes narrowed and focused on her work.

It didn't take nearly as much time as flattening the dough had, and finally, Tai was closing the steamer and placing it on the stove. "Alright, now we wait."

"When are the buns gonna be done?!"

"We let them cook like that for about fifteen minutes. Then we turn the heat off and wait five more minutes."

"Why?"

"So the buns can finish cooking."

"Oh."

Tai set the timer on his scroll, then moved the bowls, plate, tray, and spoons to the sink with the pot that he'd made the broth in in the first place. He rinsed them each sort of roughly, then set to washing them properly. Ruby even pulled her chair over to the sink to help, picking up a towel to dry the clean dishes as Tai set them aside.

They worked in silence while they did dishes, and finally, Tai set the last one in the drying rack and turned to open a cabinet, pulling down a container, a few cups, and a small plate. He pulled down another pot from the next cabinet over, setting it on the stove. He wandered back to the fridge for the milk, pouring some into the pot to heat up. Just as he turned on the heat, his scroll buzzed, letting him know to turn the heat off of the buns and let them sit. He set the scroll for another five minutes and let the buns finish and the milk heat up.

Ruby had pulled the chair back to the table, and sat down to let Tai move around the kitchen as he needed to. He didn't usually like people in the kitchen with him, but of course, he'd never told Yang or Ruby "no" when they wanted to help.

After another five minutes, the heat was shut off of the milk, and Tai was moving again, filling two cups with cold mlk and one with warm milk. He placed several of the buns into a container and set it on the counter, putting three of them onto a plate. He moved around in place for another few minutes, before finally turning around with the cups, plate, and container on a tray.

"C'mon, Ruby," he called, prompting the little girl to hop to her feet. "Let's go see if Yang's hungry."

#taiyang xiao long #ruby rose #sleigher #slcyer #gcrdens #pumpkin writes

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mrkinetik · 6 years ago

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This is Coretta Scott King (4/27/1927 - 1/30/2006). I have often wondered what it would’ve been like to in her position, given the things we know about her husband’s life and his own work. I’m sure she has done far more than we will ever truly know. She was born in Alabama; her mother drove a school bus, was a church pianist and singer; she also worked with her husband in his businesses. Her father’s lumber mill was burned down by angry Whites after he refused to let a White logger use it. Her parents were not formally educated but pressed their children to be educated; they went to a one-room elementary school and a segregated Black high school (Lincoln Normal School) in Marion, Alabama. Her mother drove the bus to the school. Coretta was valedictorian in 1945. She attended Antioch College (Yellow Springs, Ohio); her older sister Edythe attended as a program to diversify the student body by offering full scholarships. She studied music, later joined the local NAACP chapter. She wasn’t allowed to student teach in Yellow Springs public schools and worked at Antioch’s lab school instead. She transferred to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston which is a pretty high accomplishment. She met Martin Luther King, Jr. through a friend and wasn’t really feeling him at first but he was all about Coretta, and over time they grew to love each other. They got married in 1953 on the lawn of her mother’s house; she removed the “obeying” part of the vows from her marriage vows. She finished her degree in voice and piano and moved to Montgomery, Alabama in September 1954. She paused her own dreams of being a professional singer. They had Yolanda on November 17, 1955. The Montgomery Bus Boycott started December 5, 1955 and the rest is history. Coretta Scott King deserves it all. Read books about her, watch videos and films, hear her voice. Her dedication to the Civil Rights Movement is just as important as her husband’s dedication! She was a key force in getting the MLK Holiday among many, many other things. She is wonderful, Coretta Scott King, a legend. #corettascottking #blackhistorymonth #mrkblackhistory #jaaamaccordingly (at The King Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt5rR1LHjFk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=xl04u1yfap5w

#corettascottking #blackhistorymonth #mrkblackhistory #jaaamaccordingly

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princessrosalinatherealstar-blog · 6 years ago

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Prince Eric

So it’s 11:30 in the morning and I’ve procrastinated AP Lit for too many days now because of the crazy cold weather and snow days we’ve had... and I have a 5 paragraph essay to write on Medea ....BIG OOF. And I also have to read 50 pages of Dorian Gray and analyze them...whoops... oh well ☺️ I’m on here instead... so back to my life... well let’s see I broke up with prince Eric last Monday on MLK day and it was ROUGH... lemme tell yah I felt like such a shitty person like WOW.... to put it into context last friday I broke down and cried to my AP Lit teacher for a half hour after school(yikes)... anywho he was in love with me but it wasn’t just love it was, (for all you AP Lit students out there) it was... passion. That word that nearly ugly word that the common person may think is fine and dandy but it’s toxic it’s... diseased. He was obsessed and that’s what I have to keep telling myself to make it ok so that’s pretty much the end of Prince Eric, I know you all want to hear about Prince Lucas...he’s just... wow... Prince Eric was exactly my height I couldn’t wear heels with him and he was super skinny and even had a little bit of abs but he was so skinny I couldn’t cuddle... Prince Lucas is tall hes got perfect wavy blonde hair that I just want to run my finger through when I fuck him... ok back to Pg oof... he’s HOT... and HES SINGLE!!! Here’s a thing we actually talked at one point... it was spring break sophomore year and he got sexual and I was scared and not ready for that and damn I wish I would’ve been... also like sophomore year I wasn’t even cute like I had a bad hair cut like BAD and I was a mess lol rip... but he liked me!!! So that definitely made it a surprise when the actually (homecoming)QUEEN of our school told me we should DATE. Like woah... so I’m over here trying to figure out if this mans might like me... here’s another thing he’s currently borrowing Zelda(Breath of the Wild) from me... which I have to him while Prince Eric and I were still dating... whoops... so I have an in, I have a way to talk to him! So there’s that also we have AP lit together so I’ll have him all year round too... so he’s super Christian... like SUPER... like he hasn’t had sex yet pretty sure he won’t till marriage... but I’m pretty sure he’s done everything up to full on penetration... but will he look at me differently if he knew I had sex with Prince Eric? Idekkkkkk bro... so anyways I’m gushing over this mans BAD... and you know what... it’s actually nice to have a full on crush because I don’t get them very often...

#life #love #breakup #teenager #emotions #horomones #ugh #tea #teen #story #storytelling #myself #mess #me #wow #girl #princess #rosalina

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tinybigdreams · 8 years ago

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WORN / NEW THINGS

Some recent photo’s taken of us by my lovely Husband. Worn /Me: HomeGrown Ribbed Sleeve Top, HomeGrowns Rolla Trade Overalls (in maternity). Yumi: Was actually a cute little dress we got at the thrift store in Australia. ((it’s an EA dress that came with an EP))

I believed I mentioned in one of my recent posts that we had to cut the trip short due to my surprise pregnancy, and you probably can’t imagine what that must’ve been like for us since we sold our home followed by our house hunting history. Well, it was better than I could’ve imagined it. Our little trip lead us to California which we fell instantly in love with this little city called, San Luis Obispo. It was perfect to all of us and since we were already homeless we decided on the thought of living here. Well, one thing lead to another and we actually began going house hunting.

It wasn’t long before we both found homes not too far away from each other, in fact, the real estate part was a breeze. It went so smoothly that I thought it was a dream and the house we got... Better yet, the neighborhood we’re in is just perfect. Everything is really just perfect. I haven’t been this happy or excited about moving in such a long time. We’ve moved so much already with Yumi that I'm finally happy to just settle down, for good. The school districts are great and we’re so close to our friend's house! Yumi is so excited and is already thinking about what the future holds for her and her best friend Aoife.

We started buying things and decorating the house already and we managed to get all, yes I repeat ALL the upstairs bedroom finished and even got the kitchen done within 4 days. It was stressful, fun, and exhausting but we’ve made it! Just a few days ago we were at the pet store getting catnip, cat beds, and etc for Moo when Hubbs and Yumi fell in love with this pug puppy that was up for adoption there. He was pretty cute if I say so myself, I guess that’s why they insisted on bringing him home. I had to kindly decline this offer since we already have a cat and a baby on the way. I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle a puppy.

We went home with no puppy and a bunch of kitty products. By the time we got home it was pretty late and I was too tired to cook so I asked my husband to go out and get food and he agreed. The kids went with him so I had some alone time to tidy up a bit. When they came home Yumi was running towards me saying “MOMMA MOMMA MOMMA LOOK!!!” and I looked and it was this pretty big dog. I’m not going to lie, I got frightened and held Yumi close as if the dog was about to eat her or something. Yumi pulled away and said “No... It’s okay, she doesn’t bite momma! See look!” and she swung her little arms around the dog's neck giving her a tight hug.

I stared at them before whispering to Kohaku about how I told him not to get a dog and he said “We didn’t get a dog babe... We found her... Kind of like she got us.”.. I insisted on them taking her back where they found her, but they begged me and Yumi went on and on and on dramatically about how she’ll “JUST DIE!” out there alone. So I said fine, keep her outside in the backyard until morning. We did just that. Except for long story short, the little sucker made me fall in love with herself by being so sweet to me and my babies that I agreed to keep her. Yumi wants’s to call her Polly, and Hubbs doesn’t agree. But “Polly” LOVES Yoshi and Yoshi loves Polly... He calls her “Doggie” except he says it like “Dog-geh”.

So yeah, there’s that. We’re going to take “Polly” walking to this park where they’re doing an MLK parade today. Have a good one!

#F A S H I O N & B E A U T Y #L I F E #H O M E & D E S I G N

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canaryatlaw · 8 years ago

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Okay it's late and I have to wake up at 6:40 so let's get this thing going. I woke up some time around 6 and my apartment was literally freezing. I check the thermostat and the temperature was already pushed up to like 75 or so so there was like nothing I could do, so I just went back to sleep and by the time my alarm went off at 11 it was fairly warm. I texted my roommate about it and she said the issue is the furnace is having trouble kicking on or something so when it gets down to a temperature that would kick it on it just doesn't turn on and it just continues getting cold. Lovely part of living in an old building, but hopefully we have it working better now. I just hate being cold, lol. But once I woke up again I started getting ready to head down to school for class. Walked to the train and it was fine, train to school and got there at like 12:40 for my 1 o clock class, and there's like nobody in the room. Am I in the right room...? Generally the first week of class everyone is here like at least twenty minutes early....but I checked online and it was the right room, so I sat down and pretty soon people started trickling in so I felt better. There were about 12 of us I think, that's generally where the larc III classes cap off. Ah yes, back to larc. Quick refresher, larc is my schools acronym for what's basically legal writing (it's "legal analysis, research, and communication," but it's legal writing) and I got a semester off of it because for second year they have the first half of the alphabet take it in the fall semester and the second in the spring (and my last name starts with M, which initially was the cut off for the fall, but then got bumped to spring). So I wasn't too thrilled about starting it up again, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do. The prof seems cool, she's an adjunct who works at one of the downtown firms. The actual class period was like, insanely boring because it was about researching for administrative regulations, which is as boring as it sounds like it would be. I mean she couldn't really do much writing wise until after we give her our first assignment, so she had to fill it with something. The first assignment is due in two weeks, just the argument section of a trial brief, 1750 word limit, so not bad. What will be fun from here is trying to figure out what exactly she wants as compared to what my larc prof from last year wanted. It's strange like, there's my concept of legal writing that I do on memos and finals (apparently well enough to get me A's and school boards to change their decisions) but then there's what you do for larc, which is basically an entirely different concept. It's difficult to explain like this, but it's just very very technical and requires extremely specific pieces in order to work right. So that should be interesting at least. I did pull an A in my last semester of larc, so that is encouraging (I mean, I worked my ass off for it, but I did get it). She let us out like 15 minutes early, so that was nice. Headed back home, where I pretty immediately started on laundry because that really needed to get done. Put a load in, then relaxed for a little while while also getting a bunch of little things done. I also decided to make this recipe I saw a few days ago for banana blueberry muffins that looked good, so I did that and they turned out very nice. Watched the latest episode of frequency, which I still need to set to record on my TiVo so I don't forget about it, lol. I'm glad it worked out that Raimy is *not* being charged with first degree murder for obvious reasons, although I have serious doubts of whether in that situation that actually would've happened. I'm also glad Frank didn't get busted with a guy in his trunk hahaha so that's good. It's interesting to see where they'll go from here, because it's almost as if by everything they've done to try and stop their mom/wife from getting killed has actually put her on the guy's radar all the more, and given him more motivation to target her, which is very scary because this douche is fucking terrifying man and I really hope they get him soon. I mean of course they won't really be able to take him down until the season finale, because television, but you know what I mean. I'm enjoying the show though. After that I didn't have anything else to catch up on so I switched to daredevil season 2 again, which saw the so called downfall of the punisher and then the arrival of Electra. I find the punisher to be such an intriguing character, and I almost wish they dug into his story more than they really do, because there's just so much there that they could've worked with. I mean I'm rewatching it because I know I missed a lot the first time around so maybe they will get into it more, but I remember being disappointed in their story of his trial (though that was probably more from a legal perspective) and how unhappy I was that Matt essentially abandoned being a lawyer this season because I need my lawyer superheroes, okay? (Don't talk to me about Laurel.) I'm liking that though. I have always liked Electra, but mainly from a superficial perspective because I never really dug into her story (most of my actual comic knowledge is DC, not marvel) I just knew about her as a character and liked how kick ass she was, and I definitely went to a superhero party dressed at her (which was like, a red shirt, a short red skirt, and red leggings) when I was like, 16 lol. So that was good. I basically just chilled out and did that for a while, which was nice to just relax and get some stuff on my to do list done. Around 9:30ish I started getting ready to go out for the party I was invited to. It was a birthday party for my summer job friend and another one of her friends who I'm friendly with, just at her apartment. So I ubered there because it was a Friday night and it was already 10 o clock, and there wasn't a simple public transport route there, and it was cold lol. But got there and started talking to some guys from classes, and talked about school because we're dorks like that and what else where we gonna talk about? Lol. It was pretty basic, didn't really do anything besides stand around and talk to different people while everyone else got sloshed and I drank coke lol. It was good though, talked to some different people. I ended up taking to two guys for a little while that were, for lack of a better term, quite stupid, which of course was...interesting. And they later like came back over to talk to me specifically and I was like.....okay haha I'm gonna go over here now. Sigh. I talked to a girl from my trial ad group for a little though and that was good, then various friends for a little, and some 1L's, just the usual about surviving first semester and what to expect post-finals and going forward. It's strange because I've met like, no 1L's this year besides my mentees haha so I felt like I should talk to them a bit. And yeah, that was pretty much it. Pleasant enough, as much as a party can be when you're pretty much the only sober person there. I left at like quarter to 1, because they were moving out to a bar then and there's not much point going to a bar when you can't drink, lol. I made plans with my spring break friend to meet up with her in the morning to drive to the donate a day that pad is co-sponsoring, so hopefully she won't be too hungover lol. Took an uber home for obvious reasons, and had a very nice conversation with the driver about the world and politics and everything, and then about my work and fostering, and she was saying that she had considered being a foster parent but didn't because she thought giving them back would be too hard, and I said that yes it absolutely will be hard, but we so need good people that are willing to make hard decisions like that for these kids that need to be loved even if you have to give them back, and she seemed to really take to that and said she was really going to reconsider it now, so that made me quite happy to hear. Got home and basically got ready for bed, and here we are, gotta be up in a little more than 4 hours to go volunteer to do something with some kids (I don't even really know what we're doing, something about an MLK Jr. peace rally, whatever that means, but it sounds like something our world could use about now) so that should be interesting, and I'm gonna get some sleep now. Goodnight peeps. Happy weekend.

#daily journal #January 2017

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