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frogmanwritings · 4 years ago

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How the writers have failed Roundhouse’s character

I’ve seen a fair bit of dislike towards Roundhouse and his character. I myself personally like Roundhouse, but I can definitely see the points of others, which I feel however can be put onto the blame of two factors that I will go through.

This is by no means trying to say that disliking the character is wrong, you can like or dislike any character you choose, but I feel that some of the reasons I will go over that be attributed to things outside of the in-world of the character.

Also new Twinkle chapter should be coming within the week, so if you’re following me for my fanfiction, have that to look forward to. <3

Anywho...

1. Development Roundhouse’s development throughout the first some issues is actually pretty good.

#20 they give you the idea that Roundhouse doesn’t belong. He looks unsuspecting, acts unsuspecting and everyone is sure to point it out. Robin and Red Arrow are immediately against him being on the team, and Robin only agreed because he wanted Kid Flash on the team and they were a ‘group deal’. Even when Roundhouse shows usefulness, like when he was able to get a potential lead towards who the ‘Other’ is, Robin pays him no mind, and he is visibly rattled by the explosion that follows. And then back at base, he is picked on by Crush, and has to get Wallace to back him up.

#21, he is easily deflected by Gizmo’s technology, all while rambling about social media and ‘Viewtube’, and once Gizmo is defeated by Djinn, he isn’t given an assignment by Robin who gives everyone else something to do. And then, when he joins the girls in getting the kids out of the store, he quite blatantly fails, leading him to ride on Crush’s and Djinn’s success. But he also shows intelligence, with quick thinking and a partial sacrifice leading him to save New York when he gets launched into space with a nuke. This is where he seemingly dies.

#22, He is thought to be dead, and yet Kid Flash is the only one mourning him. Crush is dismissive, Robin puts blame on himself because he “wasn’t ready”, and Red Arrow calls it an “inevitability” and turns his death into a training session.

#23, it’s revealed that he is alive and didn’t try to reach out to the team because he believed that no one would care... and because he was grounded. When he returns to the team, we quickly see just how ‘normal’ he is in comparison to the rest of them, with their parent situations each heavily complicated, further pushing the narrative that he’s just an average kid with the most abnormal thing he has is a strict mother.

#25, we get to see just how he lives the nuke in space, and how he gets back. His concussed self hallucinates his dead sister helping out of the situation he gets in, likely because she’s the one he loved the most and the one he sook guidance in when she was alive, as well as brief insight into himself.

#26, he actually gets trusted to do something by Robin, and not just anything, but hack into the Batcomputer. He shows both awe and fear of Batman in the process, and while hacking, he shows that while smart, he isn’t perfect, and causes an alarm. Then, when the supposed Batman comes to attack, he hides in fear and has to be saved by Robin.

#27, he brings Wallace home for dinner. And here, he displays even more elements of being just an average and awkward kid, like with how his mother acts, how he’s convinced her that Crush is his girlfriend(revealing his attraction to her), some bits of his early life and more, as well as more insight into how he feels about his sister’s death and his powers, how it makes him feel that she’s the one who died.

And from here, is when his pivotal plot commences. He discovers Robin’s underground prison, and based on factors to be revealed, he releases the inmates. It backfires, with the villains attacking him and his teammates and inadvertently causing the ‘death’ of Deathstroke.

We get more character tidbits, like on how willing he is to help his friends, even against a foe he is very outclassed by in Lobo, how he cares for them in the face of danger, having little care for his own safety as opposed to them, and even how Robin and Red Arrow still doubts him when it’s revealed there’s a traitor among their ranks, doubting that he’d be capable of something like this.

And then, #34, is when we get the big reveal. But not before we get even further insight into Roundhouse. Robin interrogates him, and while Roundhouse is lying about how he didn’t take Djinn’s ring, he still reveals information about himself and even breaks down Robin’s choice of interrogation, further showing his intelligence. His insecurities, his guilt over his sister dying, how hard he tries because he wants so badly to be a hero but isn’t sure if he’s right for it.

And #35, the high point of this development. It’s revealed to the team that Roundhouse is the traitor and here he breaks down his background and why he did it. How close he was to Claire, how he saw her die, how he saw Robin swing away. Where he’s coming from is wrong, but the points he makes against Robin are correct. What Robin was doing was horrible, and Roundhouse just wanted to expose him for the bad person he was.

But his emotions get the better of him. Robin says it himself, he’s acted out thanks to a lot of stress coming from an emotional state. But when he perceived Robin acting mightier than him, he struck out and trapped Djinn in her ring. When Crush breaks from her restraints in rage to try and kill him, he accepts it, saying he deserves it, and is only saved by the intervention of Lobo.

Afterwards, he expresses grief and regret over his actions, and wants to help the team secure Crush. But after he gets left behind, he escapes and goes back home, ‘quitting’ the team and delving even deeper into his insecurities. Like how his sister was always better than him at everything and how his family was just ‘stuck with him’. But his mother gives him comfort, saying that while Claire was smarter, he was always more sociable, always caring for others over him and always being so emotional, and convincing him to go back to his friends to right his wrong, in which he saves Red Arrow, Kid Flash and Crush from drowning.

Now, we’re finally at a point where we can get into his redemption, the most keypoint of a good character’s redemption at #38. And what we get? Roundhouse gives a speech about how people make mistakes and he makes his, but he wants to do good. And once the team finally beats the Other, Robin tells him that he doesn’t need to apologize. And the issues after, we never see Roundhouse do anything to try and redeem himself.

These issues should at least be partially dedicated to Roundhouse trying to make up for what he did, but instead, things go back to normal as though they never happened. This is a ridiculous failure on the part of the writers, as it robs that last part of development right from Roundhouse and leaves that sour taste in the mouth of fans who want to see this character who did a horrible thing make up for it.

Like, Roundhouse's character isn't complicated. He's a goofball that was forced into his powers at the cost of his sister, and so while he wants to do good, he's still unsure on if he should be a hero because he’s insecure as all hell and constantly makes errors. He’s an average kid that collects Supreme merch, plays Fortnite and binges anime. He tries, but he messes up, perhaps because he's not a natural hero and shouldn’t be. And as we saw, his emotions got the better of him, the grief over his sister’s death, the person he was the closest to all of his life, and he took it out on the closest face he could attach the incident to, further justified by Robin’s prison and brainwashing.

To have potential development for him trying to redeem himself in the face of those who may not trust him anymore reduced to one sappy speech and a "You don't need to apologize, we have all done bad things(not true)" is just a shame. And I get why they did it, because they wanted focus on the Djinn War and Robin's collapse, not on this side character, but you've written yourself in a position where things can't go back to normal and yet they wrote it like they could, with a snap. And now you make Roundhouse look like he doesn’t actually care for what happened, nor the team does because everyone’s acting buddy buddy with him again.

There have been examples of bad writing in this Teen Titans run from Glass, most specifically being the characterization of Robin, but also Emiko and Wallace, but the flubbing of Roundhouse’s character development is also a big point of it for me as well, because I came to enjoy the character reading through, but you completely cut short his redemption, leaving out arguably the most major part of one’s development.

And I had even thought that Roundhouse was going to die in #41, based on the solicitation for it reading: “But victory comes at a terrible cost — because one of the Teen Titans won’t be making it back!“

I’d be sad to see Roundhouse go, but his death/entrapment here, at the finale of the Djinn War, would at least be something redeeming, or an end to his character development. He was the one who trapped Djinn, and willing to do anything he can to save her and bring her back, he ultimately sacrifices himself for it to defeat Elias. This would fit his character, as he’s always felt guilty over being the one to survive the accident that gave him his powers over Claire and here, he’d be able to put them to use when he rights his wrong.

And while I can’t say I’m disappointed that Roundhouse didn’t die, it would’ve at least been something, instead of what we got.

2. Inconsistency

This one isn’t nearly as long as the other, or as convoluted, but there’s inconsistency with the character, and it comes down to Glass leaving the project and Thompson taking over. Say what you will about Glass, but I can believe that he had a vision in mind for what Roundhouse’s character was, and he never quite broke it while writing. But now, Robbie Thompson has taken over, And we are getting new flashes of Roundhouse.

Roundhouse is now making references, to TMNT, to Supernatural, to whatever he can. Which is fine, ok, he’s a nerd. But when we get further in, suddenly, Roundhouse is the one that trusts Robin the most. Which is ridiculous. He gets told that Robin killed Brother Blood, and yet out of everyone, HE’S the one who doubts it, and then feels betrayed when it turns out it’s true. If anything, he should feel like he was in the right for believing Robin to be bad. He says Robin’s ruined the Teen Titans, which was already ruined when they broke up and when Roundhouse said that he himself ruined the team. Like, are you serious? Robin crossed a line, but as others have said, he’s just being hypocritical.

And him giving these speeches about being good just doesn’t work with the above mentioned, being a proper redemption to his story, as opposed to just skipping over that part of the story. What has he actually done to make up for what he did, besides help the team? Nothing, and that’s unforgivable. He talks about wanting to make up for things, but he never actually does.

And that’s that. I doubt many people will read this, but this is just my two cents on how the writers have ultimately failed Roundhouse’s development, and likely cemented him as someone that most fans will dislike for a long time, if not forever, because of it.

#roundhouse #billy wu #teen titans #damian wayne #robin #emiko queen #red arrow #kid flash #wallace west #djinn #xiomara rojas #crush

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movedkagen · 4 years ago

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REI TODOROKI STUDY / MASTERPOST .

This is mostly ripped from discord so if it’s choppy that’s why ---

TRIGGER WARNINGS : MISOGYNY, DOMESTIC ABUSE, CHILD ABUSE, CHILDBIRTH, CHILD LOSS, GENDER DYSPHORIA.

Rei never necessarily dreamed of being a mother. She had a dream, once. She painted and has a profound natural talent for art, but her family was conservative and never entertained her getting a job. Girls like her were only good for getting married. The most rebellious thing she ever did was anonymously release a few paintings while she was engaged.

Painting continued to be a coping mechanism when she was in the mental hospital, though they were much darker --- her paintings in there were very gruesome depictions of ... typically feminine things --- pregnancy, childbirth, housewife duties. She just painted them as very painful and bloody because that's how they felt to her and that's how she emotionally processed how she sees her own value as a woman. Obviously this isn’t too relevant in the grander scheme of things but I’m just providing some insight into Rei as a painter.

Now before I start, I obviously don't write Rei as Black but i think about how in Black and poc cultures women are blamed for their abusive and shitty husbands. If he hit them its because THEY made him mad, and if he cheated it's because THEY couldn't keep him/make him happy. And i write rei with those burdens. i say this bc i remember rei being on the phone like "i can't take it anymore i can't be around him i'm scared" right before she hurt shouto and i'm like ... if she did that then she must have called her mother before. and like her mother obviously didn't tell her to leave so i hc her mother was always like "be a good wife and smooth things over, keep ur man happy, if ur household falls apart thats on u"

Rei struggled the most with Touya and fuyumi. She never hurt them or anything but she had weird behaviors around them...And her biggest crime w them was the "weak constitution" she had. With Touya she was still trying to make it work with endeavor so she kept excusing his abuse because she was trying to keep things smooth... like stupid shit like "don't make ur father upset" and "u know he has a temper". not intentional but honestly just how she was raised and she thought she was doing the right thing by avoiding conflict and keeping enji happy. She tried to protect him but honestly she didn’t resent Enji as much as she did later, with Shouto.

With fuyumi....It’s more a personal hc but I told inad that like. Rei never wanted a daughter due to how she was raised. her family was very sexist and oppressive. She cried when fuyumi was born. she did NOT want a daughter and did not want fuyumi to be like her, a woman she perceived as weak. Because my rei KNOWS she’s weak. Her quirk may have been strong but her "constitution" emotionally was frail. But fuyumi is a child and doesn’t understand why her mom gets upset when she tries to help in the kitchen and Rei tells her to stop.

Touya has every right to resent Rei --- unfortunately though, Abuse is usually a cycle… I hced Rei dealt with a lot of mental and emotional abuse from her parents, her mother especially. that's how rei's family was. and in my hc quirk marriage is just a revamped arranged marriage. like quirk marriages in and of themselves are not evil like it's just. a cultural practice basically. but rei's family w endeavor........... her abuse was most prominently her own mother, They were VERY conservative, Very “the woman should serve the man” type people. endeavor was looking for someone with the right quirk so like. It’s reasonable to think that rei’s quirk had potential to be as strong as endeavor’s, just with ice. Yet she NEVER became a pro-hero? I think it’s because her parents never even considered it. Her taking an active duty job would have been disgraceful.

And culturally, most arranged marriages are agreements. i don't think Enji stomped in and kidnapped rei. There was an agreement. He was young, too. Like. Rei probably got married at like 18-19...he was no. 2 by 20. He was so driven to be no. 1. He is 46 now, and fuyumi is 23. like he's been grinding his whole career.

So if touya’s older, they had him basically right when they got married. The kids are all about four years apart so it’s probable that he basically had a kid, waited for the quirk to manifest, and then would have another...and fuyumi is the ONLY one who doesn't have that 4 yr age gap. she's closer to touya's age than the other gaps. SO I hc Touya And fuyumi r closer in age like that Bc Touya was supposed to be the Child who Succeeded. his fire quirk WAS strong. and therefore fuyumi was actually just. a planned child. because at that time their marriage wasn't complete shit it was like. something rei was optimistic abt.

for anyone who’s seen game of thrones, there's one scene where sb accuses cersei of hating the king and she talks almost wistfully about how she was so excited to marry him bc of how strong and famous he was and she was so nervous on her wedding night but then stannis stumbled in drunk and came in 2 minutes and said another woman's name and she quickly became disillusioned by the idea of her whole marriage. I compare Rei’s view on her marriage to that scene.

she agreed to marry endeavor and he was a desirable bachelor @ that point. she was excited to try and get to know him and "be a good wife" to him but. his focus on work was always first. and rei, raised how she was and trying to make things work how she was, did her best to maintain what she thought a good home was for HIM. to keep HIM happy. i don't actually think he started out smacking everyone around. i think physically, touya rei and shouto were the people he abused while natsuo and fuyumi never got that.

he was training touya and fuyumi was planned and that was the only "happy" part of the marriage

it was when touya started “failing” that the things got ugly. I think fuyumi has memories of the family being functional and happy because at the beginning they WERE ... they were functional and did things together and acted like a nuclear family. through a child’s perception, that’s what she wanted to go back to.

Anyways, Rei Met enji. And like., She ofc didn’t love him but she at least kind of liked him as a person. When a man like that comes and asks to marry your daughter it’s not some ogre carrying her off, he was a desirable bachelor & her parents LEAPT at it.

Rei was hopeful @ first. She thought "he’s handsome and strong maybe this will be a good marriage". She romanticized him a little bit. She kept thinking about being “good enough” for him. She kept giving him children, cleaning the house, being subservient because she was taught that those things made a good wife. she tried to be a good wife.

every time he got angry or distant she just blamed herself. what did SHE do to upset him. what did SHE do that didn't make him happy enough.

Endeavor didn’t hit her until shouto in my hc ... I think w shouto he just seriously lost his mind bc 3 kids in and no perceived progress. But up until that point, every time he got angry or distant Rei blamed herself. Every time he didn’t want to look at natsuo or called Touya a failure she blamed herself. And like. That fantasy was falling apart.

A resentment started brewing. She was starting to really resent her husband to the point where Touya being so similar to him made her uncomfortable. i do hc that at the time touya looked the most like him / had a temper (obviously we know him being angry would be him lashing out bc he was abused, i'm not saying his temper is wrong or bad). And fuyumi was so similar to HER I think being around her made her sad. I don’t think rei was weak and a pushover at the beginning....She was trying her best and by the very end she was tired

Now going into when she had her youngest child. All the other children disappointed enji and by default were rei’s “failures”. She didn't give him good enough children to make him happy. That was HER fault. She loved her children of course, but being a victim of abuse from her own family would sometimes get distant from them. Rei has very said, distant eyes. she's always been that way.

Whenever enji yelled at them (I don’t think he hit them @ that point in time) she would make excuses for him.

Touya and her were developing a strained relationship bc she’d ask the wrong questions and say the wrong things... “You shouldn’t have made your father mad” and things like that in response to his abuse because in her head smoothing things over is still the best approach. She wasn’t trying to hurt him, she just...wasn’t thinking rationally. She thought she was, but she was speaking from a place of abuse herself. She was taught to keep her head down.

When Touya would get angry he’d look so much like enji she’d visibly flinch away from his yelling. It strained their relationship. Like you know how you can’t take it out on the person who makes you angry so you take it out on someone else? like that. again, 100% wrong on rei's part. she made mistakes and tried too hard to please enji. She lowkey put her fear of enji into Touya as he got older. Tried not to show it but it was so clear he made her uncomfortable. And Fuyumi. She kept thinking fuyumi was gonna end up just like her and hated that.

there's distance with both of them because of those feelings. Then she has shouto and like. He’s her whole world. He’s nothing like her or enji and he’s sweet and he thinks the world of rei...Rei ADORED shouto. Natsuo was also very close with rei because endeavor straight up ignored him.

And the shit starts where he wants to train shouto and she’s trying to stop him. She wants to put her foot down. She doesn’t want him to take her baby and make him like himself. She couldn’t protect Touya, but she won’t let the same thing happen to shouto. SHe starts being defiant. The fighting starts, the hitting starts.

And you remember how right before she burns him she was on the phone with her family? Saying “I can’t take this anymore” over and over...She wanted to leave. That HAS to mean she has called them before which means this entire time every time she had a problem she probably called her mother or something for advice. And like. I’m sure. SURE Her mother was always on the other end telling her to smooth things over. To fix it. To make it right. To be a good wife. Insinuating she was a bad one for having problems in her house.

Which is why rei never left, She didn’t think to. It never crossed her mind outside of being some silly intrusive thought she’d never entertain... She had mental health issues for years, Anxiety and depression that went unchecked and developed into a schizoaffective disorder. She didn’t hear voices but she would just develop this severe irrational paranoia. and it all came to a head when she burned shouto.

when she got to the mental hospital I don’t think she took it well at all, I think she got there and kept insisting she was fine, was in denial that she was sick. I think she kept screaming and begging enji not to take her kids from her. I think she tried refusing medications, Pocketing pills, Hiding shit. Thinking she didn’t need help, she’s not crazy! Trying to leave and walk out. Her first year there was hard because they had to restrain her, give her injections. The whole ordeal.

She was very resistant to care at first. I also hc like. She’s clearly fine and having worked in a mental hospital before a lot of people ARE fine while they’re there but they’re so scared of integrating back into society they just don’t want to leave. She's not so mentally unwell she needs to be inpatient for 10 years that's just. not realistic. She could have been discharged earlier, but she didn’t wanna go back home. She was afraid to live in the real world again. So she stayed of her own choice there.

REI DOESN’T WANT TO LIVE IN THE HOUSE ENJI BUILT. In fact, when she gets out, she sees natsuo and fuyumi argue about who is going to live with her (to take care of her) and rei just quietly says she’s decided not to live with either of them. She loves her kids, she wants to have a place in their lives again somehow, but she’s also ashamed of how Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shouto all think they have to “save” her. She’s lost all the years to raise them, but if there’s one more thing she can do for them as a mother, it’s stand up on her own two feet and not burden them any more than she already has. She tells them that she’s sorry for being weak, but that she wants things to be different. And because of that, she says she’s gonna live in a group home for women until she can get a job and get her own place. She has help from the hospital and she’s going to use those resources.

The kids try to dispute it, but Rei won’t budge. She knows she failed them as a mother and knows she can’t change her weakness in her past, but she refuses to do that to them any longer. She isn’t a fool --- she knows it will make an already hard transition that much harder, but all she’s ever been is someone’s daughter. someone’s sister. someone’s wife. someone’s mother.

For the first time in her life, she wants to be Rei.

#* HOWL » saved.#IDK WHAT TO TAG THIS AS BUT HERE.#THIS POST IS RLY LONG BUT TAKE THE TIME TO READ IT I STG

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hutchhitched · 7 years ago

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The Vintage Joshifer Series: End of Love—Chapter 13

End of Love by hutchhitched

Author’s note: Thank you to all of you who welcomed this story back after its hiatus. This is pretty much the halfway point of the story, and Josh and Jen are finding their way back to each other in the midst of the upheaval of the 1960s. Historical references include the following:

The Detroit race riots were discussed in the previous chapter, while Trumbull Park and South Deering were mentioned in Chapter 3. The Chicago Freedom Summer was the reason Josh left Berkeley in Chapter 11.

The EEOC Jen references is short for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which passed in 1964 as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was intended to provide equal pay for equal work for men and women and protect against gender discrimination. It was only marginally successful because men and women rarely held the same job. During the first full year in existence, the EEOC fielded over 2000 complaints of sexual discrimination. The EEOC still functions as part of the US government today.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in Oakland, California, in 1966 in response to the failure of the Chicago Freedom Movement. It was a leading organization in the growth of Black Power, a movement that rejected peaceful protests as the only method for attaining equal rights. In 1968, SNCC formally merged with the Black Panthers, marking the perceived failure of non-violence to end racial discrimination.

Chicago, Illinois, July 1967

“Jen! In here. Now!” Mr. Murrow, editor in chief of the Chicago Tribune, shouted from his doorway.

Pushing away from her typewriter, Jen rose and walked to his office. The sounds of the newsroom swirled around her, and Mr. Murrow motioned for her to close the door behind her. She perched on the chair facing his desk and waited for her new assignment.

“Jen, I’m going to need you to cover something for me,” he started and gave a quick, insincere smile when she nodded. “This race riot in Detroit. I need someone to cover it.”

Her pulse rate increased slightly, but she tried to maintain a calm façade. “The race riots? What’s the angle for the story? Wait, are you sending me to Detroit?”

“Of course not. You’d be raped and killed within minutes of getting there,” he snapped without any sense of compassion. “No, I’m not sending you to Detroit. That’s why we’ve got the wire. If I was going to send somebody, it wouldn’t be a girl like you.”

Jen pressed her lips together in a tight line and fought to keep her mouth shut. Her editor was an ass. There wasn’t any other way to describe him. She’s regretted moving to Chicago and working for him at the Tribune each day she’d come to work, but she knew she wouldn’t change the decision if she had it to make over again. Chicago was the last place she knew Josh had been, and it was also the best job offer she’d gotten after graduation.

“What’s my assignment, then? I’m sure it’s hard-hitting journalism, as always,” she said wryly.

“Calm your tits, toots. I’m sending you to the South Deering. I need you to interview some colored people and get their reaction to what’s happening in Detroit. Don’t care who it is. Don’t care what they say. Don’t care about anything other than six inches to run below the fold tomorrow morning. Get it done, doll.”

What a pig. I’ve got to get out of this newsroom.

“Mr. Murrow, can I respectfully request that you read up on the EEOC when you get a chance? It’s that thing that protects women from men treating them like a sex object in the office.” She kept her tone light, but she knew he could tell she was serious.

“Sweetheart, I’ll worry about women’s rights when you can bring me a story that’s worth something instead of a feel good piece.”

“Then why don’t you give me an assignment that’s something more than interviewing little old ladies and new moms?” She slammed her hand on the arm of her chair and started at him with the sternest expression she could manage.

Mr. Murrow studied her for several minutes before answering. When he did, it was clearly a dismissal. “Get me something for tomorrow. Find an angle if you want to, but we both know nothing the poor black people in Chicago have to say about race riots in Detroit is going to matter to anyone who reads this paper.”

Jen rose to leave the office and tossed over her shoulder, “Thanks for your vote of confidence.”

“Be sure to wear that skirt when you go down there. You ass looks hot in that one. Feel free to drop something so you can pick it up.”

“I cannot work for this man much longer. What a dick,” Jen muttered as she wound her way back to her desk. She needed to do some research before heading to the ghettos in South Deering Chicago.

She spent the next few hours pulling up several issues from the past year and skimming for stories that mentioned racial tensions, especially in South Deering. She scanned a number of reports about promises to improve housing conditions before freezing. There on the front page of the issue from Friday, June 17, 1966, was a grainy picture of a non-violent demonstration. In the background behind Martin Luther King, Jr., Josh stood arm in arm with his best friend from college, Jackson.

Seeing the image felt like a punch in the gut. She hadn’t heard from him since he’d left Berkeley, although she knew he’d tried to contact her several times. She continually questioned why she’d snuck from his bed before he woke the morning after he’d brought her to climax. She flushed when she remembered how naïve she’d been not knowing what a female orgasm actually was during sex and how he’d brought her to it more than once. She missed him, but she had no one to blame but herself. Taking the job in Chicago was the right career move for her, but there was a tiny bit of hope that it would bring her back to him.

She traced his strong jawline and studied his form. He looked fit and galvanized in the picture, and she allowed herself a few moments to remember the feel of his muscled torso and shoulders under her hands. She recalled the way his back muscles had contracted as he’d thrust into her and the way his mouth had caressed her warm skin. More than that, though, she remembered how full he’d made her—how thick and rigid he’d been as she rode him—how his eyes had scrunched closed when he’d ejaculated and called her name.

“Jen! Earth to Jen!” her editor sing-songed as he snapped his fingers in front of her face. “I need you to quit daydreaming and get down there. Quit dilly-dallying.”

Flushing with embarrassment, she shook herself free of the memories of that night with Josh and turned her attention to her job. She jotted down several notes and potential questions to ask those she might interview and headed for the door. She didn’t have much time before the paper went to print.

By the time the cab pulled up to Trumbull Park, a housing development that had been one of the first to allow Negroes to move into South Deering, she felt she might vomit from being so nervous. As she looked around the neighborhood, she realized how out of place she was and how dangerous it had been for her to come alone.

She walked quickly to the local grocery store and wandered the aisles aimlessly. Hoping to come across someone who offered a look that was more friendly than openly hostile, she observed the patrons unobtrusively.

“Jennifer Lawrence? Is that you?” With her heart pounding in her chest, she whipped around and almost wept in relief to see Jackson standing before her. “What the hell are you doing in South Deering? This isn’t exactly your neighborhood.”

“Jackson!” she cried and threw herself into his arms. He enfolded her in a brief hug but grabbed her hand and pulled her from the store to a secluded spot on the side of the building.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you know how dangerous this is with all the race riots going on right now? What were you thinking coming here alone?” His eyes raked over her face before he grinned and asked, “What are you even doing in Chicago?”

She grinned at him and blurted, “I live here. I mean, not here. I work at the Tribune, and my editor sent me to do a story on reactions to the Detroit riots. I was trying to figure out who to interview when you found me. How are you? How’ve you been since you graduated? How’s…uh, how’s Josh? Have you seen him lately?”

“Well, that didn’t take long,” he remarked wryly, “although I’m a little surprised that wasn’t the first thing out of your mouth.”

“I’m sorry. I’m thrilled to see you too. It’s just been so long since we—since I saw him. It feels like a lifetime ago when we were all together in California.” She grimaced at the hint of longing that echoed in her words and dropped her eyes to focus on her twisting hands.

He chuckled and reassured her, “It’s fine, Jen. You and Josh have a really special relationship. I wouldn’t expect anything else. Let’s get out of here. We can go to my family’s place.”

He grabbed her hand and walked quickly down the block and to a small, crumbling house about a block away. The porch was tiny, just a few feet wide, and it was crooked to the rest of the house. The front door squeaked on its hinges, and Jen noticed the holes in the screen as she slipped through the door. The inside was miniscule but clean and tidy. It was clear Jackson’s family worked hard to make the home inviting, despite the general disrepair and poverty of the neighborhood. Jackson motioned for her to sit on the ragged, brown plaid couch, and Jen settled into it carefully. Tugging the hem of her miniskirt down, she crossed her ankles and waited for Josh’s best friend to tell her what she wanted to know.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, Jen,” he admitted. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone from school—even Josh.” Her heart sank, and she worked hard to school her features so he wouldn’t understand how much it hurt to hear that Josh wasn’t close.

“Where is he?” she asked. “I haven’t seen him since he graduated. He called a few times, but…”

“He’s fine. He was in Cincinnati last month, staying with his family during the riots there. Spent a little while back in California looking for you too. He’s been traveling with other friends, dropping in on protests around the country, and trying to change the world. Nothing much has changed there.”

She nodded and swallowed hard. Josh’d come back to look for her, although she wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t done much else differently since they’d been apart. He’d always wanted to work for rights and justice. She should have known he’d go back for the Summer of Love.

“He misses you.”

“H-how do you know?”

“Because he told me.”

“He talked about me?” she queried while trying to quiet the bubble of hope rising in her gut.

“Only when he was drunk or high, which admittedly was often the first few months after you ran out on him.” She flushed under his accusatory gaze but remained silent. “He got over it after a few months. He’s back to being the ladies man he was at Berkeley.”

She laughed mirthlessly. “No surprise there. He’s been blessed with the Hutcherson charm.”

“I’ll tell him I saw you the next time he checks in. He calls about twice a month, so it won’t be long.”

She nodded, touched by the gentleness in his voice. “Thanks. Any chance you’d let me interview you for my story? My editor is giving me free reign, and since I ran into you, I’d kind of like to give it a personal touch. It’d be nice to get real answers, and you could be honest with me.”

“I can?” At her chagrined expression, he softened and inquired, “What’s the story?”

“Colored’s response to the Detroit riots.”

“How about a black man’s response to racial unrest in the Motor City?” His voice hardened with the question, and she pulled her notebook from her purse to jot down notes.

“Can you clarify the difference for me? I’d really like to let people know, um, well, what you think about it as opposed to me and other people without a connection.”

Her voice shook, and she realized how nervous she was to be faced with the honesty of someone who was reminded every day of the color of his skin. She’d always thought of Jackson as Josh’s best friend, but now when she looked at him, she saw a young man her own age who was limited by his race just as she was often underestimated by her sex. The difference in their situations rested on the fear of many in the country that black men were dangerous and must be eliminated as opposed to strong women who needed to be silenced. Jackson could be killed for defending himself, while she’d simply be shamed and shunned.

“Please, Jackson. I really want to know, even though I know I can’t ever truly understand.”

He grabbed a frame from a shelf and joined her on the couch. Handing it to her, he explained, “That’s my dad. He fought in Korea fifteen years ago. Recognize the other person?”

She squinted at the blurry image and gasped, “That looks like Josh.”

“That’s his dad, Chris, about two weeks before he was injured in the line of duty and was paralyzed from the waist down. My father—Robert—and he were in the same unit. That’s how they know each other and why Josh and I had an immediate bond when we met.” He took the picture from her and set it gently on the side table. “My dad’s a vet, decorated and honorably discharged after serving in military combat, but he still can’t get a promotion at his factory job because of he’s black. He gave up getting a college education so I could take his GI benefits. He sent me to California in hopes that I’d be accepted there in a way I couldn’t here or in the South.”

“Did it work?” she asked, genuinely curious to hear his opinion.

“You tell me. Am I any better off than my parents, or am I in more danger, do you think?” When she didn’t answer, he continued. “Josh and I marched together for fair housing in this neighborhood a year ago. Dr. King singed a promise with Mayor Daley to promote better living conditions for black families, but you see the state of this neighborhood. It’s still crumbling around us despite working hard and trying our best.”

“What would change that, do you think? What would make a real difference instead of just lip service?”

His eyes flashed, and Jen felt a chill at the latent anger he possessed. “Our leaders need to stop selling out. I flew back to the Bay after the agreement was signed. I spent the rest of the summer in Oakland with some friends helping start the Black Panther Party. Josh went back to Kentucky then, and I haven’t seen him since. He understood why I did what I did, but he’s not a brother and can’t be part of it.”

“I’m still listening,” she told him as she scribbled on her notepad. “You can tell me anything you want.”

“Here’s the thing, Jen. You can’t understand. Neither can Josh. No one who’s not going through this can, but you can listen and try to accept how we feel. Detroit’s burning because we’re tired of waiting for white people to accept us. We’re tired of getting beaten and killed because we’re demanding what should have been ours a century ago. We’re tired of getting targeted by police for doing nothing other than existing. SNCC is looking to join the Panthers too. When a group with the term “non-violent” in its name shifts to Black Power, then you know the non-violent approach isn’t working. Detroit’s going to burn, and the ashes will be just as black as our skin, and it’s not going to stop there. Other cities are going to go up in flames too.”

“What would it take to stop that from happening?”

He grinned at her, but there was no mirth in his eyes. “A revolution, Jen. A revolution’s coming. I hope America’s ready.”

“I hope so too,” she whispered. If not, she worried the long, hot summer of race riots would lead into the fall and beyond. She hoped she was strong enough to face it, but she knew it would be easier with Josh by her side.

****

As the sun set in the west, Jen pounded out her story on her typewriter. She’d already written several versions, but she had a few changes left to make before turning it into her editor.

“Toots, I need your story,” Mr. Murrow barked a few minutes later, and Jen glared at him as he approached her desk.

“My name is Jennifer, Mr. Murrow. I suggest you call me that from now on unless you’d like me to start referring to you as Hot Buns.”

He sniffed and grabbed the paper from her hand before retreating to his office. As he closed the door, he called, “I wouldn’t mind a bit, doll.”

“Asshole,” she muttered under her breath as she left for home.

She was only slightly mollified the next morning when she saw he’d published her story with almost no changes. Breathing in sharply, she sipped her coffee and skimmed her piece.

The Long, Hot Summer of 1967 is still burning, and there are several more weeks to go until it’s over. Riots across the nation test the patience of even the most understanding white people and illuminate the anger and frustration of the Negro population.

It doesn’t take much to understand why if one wanders the streets of South Chicago where houses sit in disrepair, as dejected and run-down as some of the owners. They exist in a nation that fails to value the worth of all Americans, where appearance is more important than what’s inside.

I visited with Jackson Jones, a young black man who lives with his family in a small, tidy, but dilapidated dwelling in South Deering. His candor about the situation in Detroit demonstrates an understanding I can only hope to achieve.

“We’ve waited long enough,” he argues. “It’s been 100 years since emancipation, and we’re still treated as second class citizens—if that. And it’s no better in the North than in the Deep South. I live in Chicago, but I’m still bound by what others see as the color of my skin, not my degree from Berkeley, top grades, or my fledgling career.

“I marched with Dr. King last year, and I was told to stop protesting and get a job; that marching wouldn’t do any good; that if I really wanted to see change, I should keep my mouth shut and be grateful for what I’ve already got; that somehow I have to prove to others what I’m worth—even though nothing will ever be good enough for acceptance.

“Detroit isn’t an anomaly. It’s not special. We protested peacefully across the country, and whites complained that we disrupted their lives. Now there are riots, and black people are to blame for destroyed property across the nation. We’re the problem, not the racism we’re attempting to combat.

“When am I more important than a storefront window? When does my life have the same value as property? If more of us knew that, maybe we’d protest the way white people want us to. Or is that even possible until we’re quiet and refuse to ask for more?”

My own concern is that white America already knows the answer, and it’s unacceptable to the disenfranchised.

#joshiferrecs #joshifersource #fyeah-joshifer #the vintage joshifer series #joshifer #end of love #1960s #jhutchdirectory

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comm4000 · 8 years ago

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Hardball: Youth, Sports, and Education Is The Way Out

The movie Hardball was released in 2001 and it stars Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane. Reeves plays Conor O’Neill, a high stakes gambler who is in serious debt to multiple loan sharks with no way of paying it back. Lane plays Elizabeth Wilkes, a middle school teacher at a catholic private school in inner city Chicago. The story revolves around O’Neill facing the harsh reality of his gambling addiction and thus doing anything to pay back the money in order to avoid serious harm or death from the loan sharks that he is indebted to. Out of desperation and running out of options, O’Neill strikes a deal with a wealthy friend of his to become the assistant head coach of a little league baseball team in the inner city of South Side Chicago. As long as he shows up to practices and games the entire season, O’Neill’s friend will pay him $500 per week. O’Neill initially sees this as a quick and easy money making opportunity to help him pay off his debts, however he quickly has his views and life perspectives changed by the kids he coaches and their teacher Ms. Wilkes. While this film is overall a feel good story with ups and downs as it demonstrates the familiar narrative of motivation, hard work, education, and sports overcoming a bad situation in the inner cities of South Side Chicago. This film also fails to address the underlying causes and issues that create these problems that are still affecting mostly minority children that reside in the dangerous and big inner cities of the United States. Many of these modern day issues stem from institutional racism, the culture of toxic masculinity, and sports being seen as the main road to success and salvation away from inner city violence in minority communities. Also known as achieving the American Dream through perseverance and individualism.

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The first of three movie clips that I will analyze in depth that outlines these societal, racial, and historically attributed problems is titled: “Losing G-Baby”. Now while the main focus of the scene is the tragic death of the character/player G-Baby, there is a different part of the scene that I would like to draw focus to. In the beginning of the scene G-Baby and his brother attempt to enter the projects where they live, however they are confronted by numerous gang members that tell them to wait. It is among those gang members that they see a former teammate of theirs named Jamal. Jamal acknowledges them when his name is called, however he just aimlessly stares at them with no emotion. It is that part alone that perfectly outlines and demonstrates one of the points in my thesis. Jamal was kicked off the team because he altered his birth certificate in order to seem of playing age. Since he no longer had sports to neither pursue nor invest his energy and talents in as an outlet, he succumbed to the influences and pressures in the environment around him. Beamon & Messer (2013) essay defined the following: Even though segregation has ended as a legal principle, sociologists point to continued realms of institutional racism, where a color line highlights the social, political, and economic disparities that routinely privilege Whites, including in sports. Even gaining access to sports and success, though, doesn’t thwart institutional racism. (p. 2) One could also highlight G-Baby’s tragic death as another working example of this definition. Because even though he and his brother had access to a sport and played on the team, the unequal disposition of the projects they lived in created a deadly environment where G-Baby paid the ultimate price. Even though this is a movie portrayal of this situation that is now 16 years old it is still a tragic reality for many young minority children in American ghettos across the country, especially Chicago which today has the nickname Chiraq.

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The second movie scene which relates to the issue of the culture of toxic masculinity is titled: Big Poppa. The scene revolves around the team’s star pitcher Miles. Miles was recently told by the little league’s commissioner that he was no longer allowed to wear his headphones while he pitched because it was a safety hazard. In reality, the opposing team’s coach complained because Miles was dominating on the pitching mound while he had his headphones in. Without his headphone Miles told coach O’Neill that he could not pitch or perform well. That the song that was playing on the headphones was Big Poppa by The Notorious B.I.G., without the music Miles felts out of rhythm and weak. On top of that without the music Miles could not block out the opposing crowd’s chants where they were chanting: “Sally! Sally! The pitcher’s name is Sally!” Now in our culture of toxic masculinity we teach our boys from a young age to never show emotion because it can be perceived as weakness, and to be tough and act like a man because otherwise you will be compared to a girl or woman. This teaches boys to value women less in our society from an early age and to perceive them as the weaker sex. According to Messner (2013), our sports fantasies are tied to our own fears, inadequacies, even failures as men…The sports-media-commercial complex consistently sells boys and men a glorified package of what masculinity is and should be (Messner, 2013, p. 115) . This is why Miles feels as though he needs the headphones for peak performance so he can live up to these strict standards of masculinity in sports.

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The final scene which ties back to race, minority role models, and sports being seen as a way towards success and achieving the American Dream is titled: Seeing Sammy. Coach O’Neill takes the entire team to see a Chicago Cubs game. He does this to treat the boys for their hard work, to share a new experience with them, and also because he thinks seeing professional players would give them motivation. According to Butterworth (2007), This has created a dynamic in the mythology of America and the “American game” that continues to the present. Because of a deep connection to frontier imagery – in other words, an era that pre-dates baseball’s integration – black and Latin baseball players have struggled to find a role within that mythology. (p. 236). After they walk into the stands one of the boys on the team, Jefferson, recognizes Cubs star player and baseball legend Sammy Sosa. From there he and the rest of the team keep shouting is name. He eventually turns around, acknowledges the boys and waves to the team. Being recognized by a star player, albeit one that is a minority motivates the boys and gives them something to strive for and replicate by using their baseball talents. Thus embodying the American Dream.

References (2012, May 22). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrgGccehkKY

2012, May 22). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ji7Coh4O7E

(2012, May 22). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwMoiBGmH_4&t=6s

Butterworth, M. L. (2007). Race in “The Race”: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Heroic Constructions of Whiteness. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 24(3), 228-244. doi:10.1080/07393180701520926

Robbins, B. (Director), & Coyle, D. (Writer). (2001). Hardball [Motion picture on DVD]. United States of America: Paramount Pictures.

Messer, C. M., & Beamon, K. (2013). The Enduring Color Line in U.S. Athletics. 1-9. doi:10.4324/9781315879611

Messner, M. (2012). Reflections on Communication and Sport: On Men and Masculinities. Communication and Sport, 1(1-2), 113-124. doi:10.1177/2167479512467977

#COMM4000 TheAmericanDream Hardball Baseball SportsMovies RaceandSports MasculinityandSports

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fashiontrendin-blog · 7 years ago

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Go Ahead, Take This Opportunity To Say You Always Hated A Creep's Art

http://fashion-trendin.com/go-ahead-take-this-opportunity-to-say-you-always-hated-a-creeps-art/

Go Ahead, Take This Opportunity To Say You Always Hated A Creep's Art

Have you always believed that Quentin Tarantino makes dreadful movies? Have you always wondered how a director could be so celebrated for work that luridly depicts the abuse and degradation of women and black people, and that offers little more than exploitative ’70s pastiche?

Maybe your belief that Tarantino sucked spoke in a small, niggling voice, something you pushed down because you felt embarrassed that you couldn’t appreciate the auteur’s work. Or maybe it was louder. Maybe you even got into arguments with your film school classmates or your boyfriend about it.

Either way, this past week has likely brought a sense of grim vindication.

First, in an interview with The New York Times’s Maureen Dowd, Uma Thurman revealed details about Tarantino’s direction of “Kill Bill,” including his role in pressuring her to perform a car stunt that went awry and left her severely injured, as well as scenes in which he personally choked and spat on her in place of her acting partners.

With the spotlight now on Tarantino, news outlets are digging up other disturbing moments from his career. Thurman wasn’t the only actor he’d choked during filming ― he’d also choked Diane Kruger for a scene in “Inglourious Basterds.” Perhaps most damning, audio surfaced from a Howard Stern interview in 2003 in which Tarantino not only defended director Roman Polanski against his notorious rape charge, but insisted that his 13-year-old victim “wanted to have it.”

Though Tarantino defended his on-set behavior in a lengthy interview with Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr., and both Thurman and Kruger went on to praise his direction on Instagram, the public reckoning with his oeuvre had already begun; plenty of naysayers jumped on the opportunity to admit that they’d always hated his movies.

Like Louis C.K. and Woody Allen before him, Tarantino had become, almost instantly, the new cool entertainment dude to have always hated.

I’ve never understood the allure of Tarantino or his films. I’ve never seen Kill Bill (1 or 2), DJango, or the rest of them, except Pulp Fiction. Once. After reading that NYT article about Uma Thurman, I know I made the right call. He is unmitigated trash.

— April (@ReignOfApril) February 3, 2018

I’m glad that my once unpopular opinion that Tarantino films are rubbish because it’s like watching the worst thoughts of the annoying lad you don’t fancy but he bothers you anyway playing out in hypercolour, is finally getting it’s moment.

— Jess Phillips (@jessphillips) February 4, 2018

You know, I thought by this point there would be at least one of these Hollywood dudes where I’d be like, “that’s a shame, I want to like his work.”

But….all of them are of mediocre talent

— Kelly Ellis (@justkelly_ok) February 6, 2018

But is this … bad? Should we resist the urge to distance ourselves from the fandom surrounding a detestable creator, to declare to the masses, “I always hated that creep”?

This week, that declaration was met with the usual pushback, as critics accused Tarantino cynics of turning a serious conversation about misogyny and assault into a conversation about superior film taste:

Revelations that Tarantino is a piece of shit (not new) doesn’t suddenly require you to tell the world how much you have always hated his films (which suck incidentally).

— Richard Whittall (@RWhittall) February 3, 2018

Ah, we’re in the “I always knew he was shifty…” phase of Tarantino discourse, then.

It tends to overlap with the “I was always an outlier in the court of public opinion and now I’ve been vindicated!” phase.https://t.co/V7Xxt62pyo

— Darren Mooney (@Darren_Mooney) February 6, 2018

All the people that never liked Tarantino films are feeling somehow vindicated and that’s fucking awful. You’re profiting off the sadness and hurt of another human being to feel morally superior to the rest because you feel that your critical opinion feels somehow accurate??

— Jaime Grijalba (@jaimegrijalba) February 6, 2018

The initial urge does seem self-serving, a way to retroactively claim credit for knowing better than everyone else. The #MeToo moment should not be viewed primarily as a plum opportunity to hipsterize disliking Louis C.K., to smugly claim, “I hated him before it was cool.”

Nor should we reflexively vilify people who loved the work of people like Louis C.K. and Tarantino. We all have problematic faves; the hardest and most vital part of changing a toxic culture is holding those faves to the same standards as artists we dislike.

But you know what? Go ahead and take this moment to tell the world you always hated a creepy dude’s art. Feel extremely free to unload on all the troubling hints in his work that he thinks of women as objects. Why shouldn’t you? We should have that conversation, too.

The #MeToo movement emerged as an urgent reckoning around sexual abuse and harassment in the workplace, but it’s churned up discussions of issues beyond that ― not only sexual abuse outside the workplace, but also a broader culture of misogyny. Those discussions have revolved around the art of abusive and chauvinistic men, and how their visions have defined our culture, often in ways that harmed women. They’ve also included talk of how white critics have long taken up the air in the room; how they’ve been empowered to curate an artistic canon by and about them, while people of color, women and other marginalized groups have not.

We’re now grappling with how admiration of these problematic men became de rigueur, and how frustrating this enforced consensus was for the many people who felt exploited or forgotten by the canon.

For years, when I’d balk at watching Tarantino films because the content made me uneasy, I was told I was being too sensitive. Between this and Uma Thurman’s devastating stories, it’s all coming together. https://t.co/X0G0kv9F4K

— marisa kabas (@MarisaKabas) February 6, 2018

Since I was around 12, the dudes in my life constantly told me I was being too sensitive when I questioned the misogyny and racism in Tarantino’s work. I was often told I “didn’t get it.” Well… I think maybe… YOU guys didn’t get it, actually? #quentintarantino https://t.co/K4dXjvEJxM

— Brigit Young (@BrigitYoung) February 6, 2018

This is not to say that only white dudes (or all white dudes) are fans of unsavory artists like Tarantino or Louis C.K. Plenty of men have been happy to note that they never liked Tarantino anyway, and plenty of women loved “Louie” and “Manhattan” and “Pulp Fiction” and have been struggling, in the aftermath of unsavory allegations, to resolve their admiration of the art with the personal crimes of the artists. (Personally, I never had the stomach for Tarantino films ― blood makes me queasy ― but I grew up on Allen’s daffy early films and liked a decent amount of Louis C.K.’s comedy.)

Still, it’s impossible to disregard the fact that an almost entirely white and male set of tastemakers (not to mention creators and investors) elevated certain male artists to the level of demigods, so above criticism that one’s dislike signaled one’s own inferior taste rather than the artists’ failings. Most critics with major platforms have long been white men; the lack of diversity in the ranks has not only stunted the breadth of conversation, but fostered the false sense that white men’s concerns are the most pressing, their opinions the most objective, and their viewpoints the most conducive to great art. Even when women or people of color dissented, their voices did little or nothing to alter the perceived consensus.

Take Allen: Pauline Kael and Joan Didion, both prominent female critics, savaged his opus “Manhattan,” which revolves around a 42-year-old man who is romancing a 17-year-old student, for, respectively, “pass[ing] off a predilection for teen-agers as a quest for true values” and telegraphing that “adolescence can now extend to middle age.”

Then-Columbia professor John Romano quickly rebutted Didion in a letter to the editor, describing her review as a result of “pique”; the letter twice describes Didion as “complaining.” Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert had a startling take on the artistry surrounding Allen’s character’s sexual predation, writing, “It wouldn’t do, you see, for the love scenes between Woody and Mariel [Hemingway] to feel awkward or to hint at cradle-snatching or an unhealthy interest on Woody’s part in innocent young girls. But they don’t feel that way.”

As the years passed, “Manhattan,” beloved by male critics who were unbothered by or eager to explain away the movie’s troubling sexual undertones, became cemented in film canon. If Kael and Didion couldn’t get us to openly acknowledge the flaws in Allen’s work, who could? At least now it seems right to go back and examine the catastrophic failures of some critics to tease out these threads. Many critics, including the New York Times’ A.O. Scott, are now openly reckoning with the insufficiency of their past criticism of Allen’s work, and they’re right to do so.

It’s also fair to point out that some people wanted to have this conversation before the #MeToo moment, but that a patriarchal hegemony of taste served as a bulwark against it. The cultural change didn’t just begin in October. For example, when Tarantino released “The Hateful Eight” in 2016, critics explicitly called out his dicey use of extreme violence toward women in the film, questioning whether it was artistically essential or even justifiable.

#MeToo was possible in part because women in Hollywood, and elsewhere, have spent years advocating for more respect and representation.

This is exactly my problem with Tarantino. He glorifies violence against women and people of color, makes an industry out of movies centered on violence towards minority groups, and gets called a “genius” for it. That’s the kind of regressive junk we need to cut out. https://t.co/RDKt9rhBu9

— Heidi N Moore (@moorehn) February 4, 2018

The central connecting thread between all of the aforementioned morally ambiguous or nihilistic art and so much more in that vein: it was all primarily by and for white men and wistfully imagined worlds where white men were never held to account for anything.

— David Klion (@DavidKlion) February 6, 2018

But despite these rising questions, the classic films ― “Pulp Fiction,” “Kill Bill” ― seemed untouchable, and disliking them remained taboo. If you’ve ever told a date, a classmate, a mentor or a friend that you can’t watch Tarantino because you find his work to be exploitative of women, only to be informed that you simply don’t understand his art, the indisputable revelation this month that he’s a bona fide creep is, in a small but real way, liberating. It’s something solid to cling to, at last, evidence that you’re not overreacting or too obtuse to appreciate the aesthetic perfection of his tobacco-spit trajectories. Distaste for his work, often cast as a mental flaw or tragic unhipness, has become, in an instant, a mark of discernment.

In a tit-for-tat sense, it does seem just that artists like Louis C.K. and Tarantino ― whose reputations were long bolstered by the plaudits of critics and the reflexive hipster posturing of fans ― have now slid to the wrong end of the “my taste is better than yours” hierarchy. That’s not the point of this moment, nor should the goal of this reassessment be to simply unseat one set of white male icons, to turn the same smugly superior judgment on their fans that their detractors have experienced. It’s only human, though, to feel vindicated.

And yet, vindication isn’t the only feeling at play. There’s something about this sudden shift that’s wildly infuriating as well. Oh, NOW you’re listening? I thought recently when a writer I’d criticized as sexist ― only to have my critique neatly brushed aside by male colleagues and friends ― faced career consequences after being accused of personal misbehavior toward women. Why couldn’t you take me seriously when I broke down all the none-too-subtle misogyny in his writing?

Saying “I always hated his work” might be a cheap hipster pose, but it also might be bitterness born of long-suppressed, impotent anger. If you’ve grown used to being shamed or condescended to for caring about an ugly thread that everyone else seemed to be overlooking, the sudden shift is gratifying, but also exhausting. All the years of churn and self-doubt suddenly feel like a cruel, unnecessary burden forced on you by the people who insisted you were wrong.

So go ahead; vent your spleen. Give yourself the tiny shred of comfort that comes from claiming your long-simmering, now-validated disdain. Take the opportunity to try, once again, to have a real debate about the artistic merit of works like “Kill Bill” and “Manhattan.” It’s a first step to envisioning a world that isn’t just rid of monsters, but that actually offers everyone an equal place in constructing our culture.

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thedreamerthebelievertheend-blog · 8 years ago

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Hardball: Youth, Sports, and Education Is The Way Out

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References (2012, May 22). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrgGccehkKY

2012, May 22). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ji7Coh4O7E

(2012, May 22). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwMoiBGmH_4&t=6s

Robbins, B. (Director), & Coyle, D. (Writer). (2001). Hardball [Motion picture on DVD]. United States of America: Paramount Pictures.

Messer, C. M., & Beamon, K. (2013). The Enduring Color Line in U.S. Athletics. 1-9. doi:10.4324/9781315879611

#COMM4000 Hardball Baseball TheAmericanDream RaceandSports MasculinityandSports

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wellmeaningshutin · 8 years ago

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Short Story #74: Bully.

Written: 3/25/2017

At first it started with something in the heat of the moment, the frail girl had slipped up, and Chloe became reasonably upset by this, which lead to an insult or two to be hurled. Everyone felt like it was just something that happened in a moment of frustration, especially since everyone had been on edge since they lost, especially since they had to spend a lot of time researching their debate subjects. Then, Chloe began to insult the girl on a regular basis, always greeting her with a “fuck off” or “I’m surprised to see you were able to walk in here, I thought you were a failure at everything”, and nobody said anything because Chloe had been the star debater, and they figured that this would all blow over by their next competition.

It was also pretty reasonable that she would be this generally nasty to somebody who had caused her to lose, especially since one of the reasons she was so valuable to her team was due to the tactics she employed before any match, which were really just a well researched method of emotional battery. She would scope out the enemy team in the week before, follow them around a little, meticulously groom their social networking pages, and would eventually form a list of what she had perceived to be their insecurities. Since teens were already naturally fragile, insecure, and had anxiety about the least important things, it was easy for her to either find them in person, or online, and accost her opponents, targeting every one of their emotional weak points, only a day or two before the match. Leaving them broken. The whole routine had only been witnessed by one or two members of her team, who had resigned shortly after since they couldn’t stand winning if that was the cost, but it had become a rumor among the others, who had a rough idea of this act, but they chose not to see it first hand, since they wanted to win. They liked to pretend that it was just a sort of verbal ballet, if ballet was cruel, mean spirited, and sadistic.

So they let her say what she wanted to the meek girl, hoping that it would blow over when she had to find other victims. However, like their view of her pre-match tactics, they were being willingly ignorant. None of them would admit it, but they were really just scared that if they had stepped in the way, then Chloe would select them as her new target. Everyone knew that she had their destruct codes.

The next match came and went, their opponents were rattled and had trouble making any of their points in time, or remembering clearly, trying not to think about how they would never be anything after high school debate, how they were just going to end up like their parents who were high school burnouts, that this was their peak and it wasn’t even that great, or how they were really hurting their team, who secretly hated them, because of their terrible pot addiction, and how they might as well turn to harder substances because that was the road they were already going down, because they were already seen as a pathetic addict, so they might as well play the part, and numb the pain while they’re at it, or how everybody knows about their abortion, but they just don’t want to say anything in front of them, because they think that they can’t handle anything, since they’re so weak, which was confirmed when they chose to kill their one shot at motherhood, a chance they were too afraid to take, and so on.

Surprisingly, Chloe had never been in risk of getting in trouble for her cruel and callous behaviors, because none of her victims had enough fight left in them to say anything, because she had made sure that she would keep kicking them while they were down, just to make sure they wouldn’t get up. And, after every match her team won, she would never have to pitch in for the ceremonial pizza, because she had secured victory for them.

However, while everyone was chatting at their table of the pizza parlor, Chloe would not stop staring down the shy girl, which seemed normal to some of the teammates because she tended to have what some would call a “predators stare”, but some considered it seductive. It was cold, unblinking, focused, and people had an incredibly hard time if they tried to figure out what was going on in her head, so most never tried. While she walked to the bathroom, she made sure to knock her quarry’s drink into her blouse, with a simple upwards motion from under the glass, and everyone decided to write it off as a simple joke, “Just her way of messing around.”

It took a very long time before anyone thought of protecting the girl, and by that point she was already worse off than she had initially been, had become quieter and more sensitive than she already was. By the time people had decided to step in, she had quit the debate team, considered changing schools, had to delete all of her social media accounts just so she wouldn’t have to suffer through harassment at home, new insecurities had been created for her, causing her anxiety to become almost unbearable, leading to her skipping school almost every other day, crying had become normalized, suicide had been considered to be more and more serious, she always looked over her shoulder, always had to know the escape routes of wherever she went, so she had basically already been broken. Chloe still stayed liked within her groups, too, but people made sure to never leave her and her plaything alone with each other.

A lot of them believed that there should only be cause for alarm if things had become violent, which would never happen, because Chloe had never raised her hand against anyone. Sure, she may have made physical threats every now and then, saying things like “You better stick an apple in your mouth, because I’m going to slit your throat like the pig you are” or “I’m going to cut you open so that I can hang you by your intestines”, but that was just all talk. That’s all she was, talk. In a way she was no different than rappers who mentioned violent subjects, but would never even consider killing, or seriously injuring, another person. Plus, she was leading the debate team to the state championships, she knew how to buy liquor, and she was kind of hot, so it was easier to just forget about it.

Then, one day, in the middle of a lecture in US History, while she was drawing herself getting torn apart by wild dogs, Chloe raised her hand and asked the teacher if she could leave class to use the bathroom, and the teacher allowed her to. Later, people would assume that it was all a part of some large plan, that it was a testament to the girl’s manipulative powers, but in reality she just had to go. After she was done pissing, and started to wipe, she heard somebody get in the opposite stall, and when she looked down she recognized the shoes, then made a guess of who they could belong to. A smile slowly formed on her face, which, only rarely, seemed to happen naturally. Deciding that the best move would be to surprise the girl, she made sure she had her pants on, that the stall door was locked, and waited for the girl to exit her stall. While she waited, she hardly moved, her breathing was calm and even, as if she was asleep, her eyes were closed so that she could focus on the sounds that would indicate that the other girl was about to leave.

Toilet paper unrolled, pants were pulled up, the toilet flushed, and the latch to the adjacent stall was undone, so Chloe quickly left hers, and before her victim could walk out, she shoved the girl back into the stall. Several seconds passed while they both stared each other down, one savoring the moment, the other one realizing that there was no escape route, clutching her pastel colored backpack to her chest, hoping that would be enough to protect her. As the aggressor closed the stall door behind her, the victim could only think about what her mother had told her about her concerns about the bully, “All these people want is a reaction out of you, so if you can’t give them that then they will just move on to somebody else.”

Her father’s advice was:“Remember, if they ever try to physically confront you, then just kick them in the balls. There’s no such thing as a fair fight. A fair fight is only something people say when they are pissed off that they lost, and that’s why your uncle hates me for stealing your mother away from him. Now move aside, your blocking the television.” When she tried to explain that her bully was a girl, he changed his advice to: “Sometimes you have to get your ass kicked, that’s just how life goes.”

Turning around, Chloe surprised the girl with the last thing she expected to see: tears. Sure, it was only one long one that traveled down her face, and one or two that were having trouble leaving her eyes, but it seemed genuine, and it was very disarming. “I’m sorry.”

The girl couldn’t believe what was happening, she had been ready to be hit, or to receive some sort of nasty insult that was somehow able to be worse than the rest, but instead it seemed like she may have been genuinely remorseful. Keeping her guard up, she asked, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I just, I have to apologize to you. I’ve been trying to for the past couple days,” rubbing imaginary snot from her nose with the sleeve of her jacket, “but everybody has been keeping me from doing it. I guess I deserve that. I know that I’m a terrible person, and I just hope that you can forgive me.”

“What the-why.. What’s going on? Is this some sort of trick?”

“Its understandable that you would think that, but, but this is the truth. I don’t tell people this, but I live in a very abusive household, its all I know. Every day my mother tries to cut into me, deep, with insults, and I always just thought that this was the way the world worked, you know? Like, I always grew up in this type of environment, so my ideas of what normal was were just all sorts of fucked up.” Back legs pressed against the toilet, the fragile girl didn’t know how to react to this, so she just listened. “But then the other night, a week or two back, and I didn’t tell anyone this so you have to promise to keep this between us, okay?” Silence. “You promise?”

For every second that was filled with silence, more and more tears began to flow from Chloe’s eyes, her lip quivered even more, and she started to become unbearably pathetic. “Yeah, yeah, okay yeah I promise.”

“Social services took me from my home. It was really rough, and I think I started to take all of that out on you. I know that its no excuse, I just want you to know why. I’m not as bad as everyone makes me out to be, I’ve just had a lot of anger and confusion inside of me, and I just needed to find a release, and nobody taught me how to do that in a healthy way. You know the way that I’ve been treating you for the past month? Imagine dealing with that for your whole life.”

“I started seeing a counselor, the one that got appointed to me, and they started to point out that what I was doing was fucked up, and then they helped me realize how messed up I was. I never realized that I was turning into my mother. They made me do all sorts of exercises, and my perspective has changed for the better. And I know that what I’ve done is inexcusable, but I want to try and make a genuine attempt to try to mend things between us.”

Before the very confused girl could even respond, Chloe had fallen into her, and began sobbing, so the girl had no choice but to embrace her, pat her back, and try to comfort her with repeated utterances of ”there there”, not realizing when the fake sobs had turned into laughter, since the sounds are somewhat similar to each other. She was starting to believe that things may really change for her, and even if she didn’t-

It all happened in a flash, Chloe had separated quickly and the girl hardly processed that she had been struck across the face, leaving her slumped on the toilet, blood pouring out of her nose, sitting there baffled at what was happening. For some reason, when her attacker was collecting toilet paper, she thought that was for wiping away her snot or tears, or maybe to wipe away the girl’s bloody nose, and later she would feel like an idiot for these misguided thoughts. When she opened her mouth to ask what was going on, the wad of toilet paper was jammed into her mouth, and a hand was placed over it, blood pooled on top of that, and the girl tried to scream for help. With every muffled attempt at a scream, Chloe only seemed to become more and more amused by the whole situation, and she asked the girl, “Why didn’t you try to hit me over the head with something when my back was turned? Why didn’t you try to push me away when you had me in your arms?” then, condescending, “Did you actually believe what I told you? Did you actually buy that fucking after school special of a performance? How fucking pathetic are you? What the fuck is wrong with you, how could you grow up to be so god damned stupid? Your parents must be fucking embarrassed of you, I bet they tell their friends that they don’t have children, or if they do I bet they lie about you. I bet every night you come home safe is just another blow to their spirits, and they probably hope that” the girl never thought of moving, she was in shock, she felt paralyzed, “you wont come home one night, just so that they will finally be able to go on with their lives, that they can stop regretting the day that they chose to not go through with the abortion.”

“Think about this, if they cared about you then why wouldn’t they have switched schools at this point? If anyone in this fucking school cared about you, then how is this happening? They only want to “protect” you so that they can become more likable with others, this has been the only reason people have even bothered to remember your name. You’re such a lost cause you just make them feel better by comparison, but they could never, and will never, think of you as a person. You’re nothing. If you died, nobody would give a shit, you would have to be dealt with by the city. Your parents would forget about you and cash their big fat life insurance check, and they would just be better off. I would still be well loved, because I’m actually worth something, I’m everything that you-” pausing, as the girl began to cry, just so that she could grab the girl’s face, squeezed it hard enough to feel the girl’s teeth, and then she, in one slow motion, licked the tears from the left side of the girl’s face. “You know what? Let’s see test this theory out. I bet nobody will ever come in here, and I’ll be able to do whatever I want to you. I bet that if somebody did walk in, nobody would care, because there would be no one else around to see them care.”

Chloe really was just planning on getting out of there if somebody came into the bathroom, just like her verbal attacks, she was waiting for somebody to stop her.

Surprised that the girl still hardly even moved, just sat there, weeping, she decided that it was time to start. All the girl could think about was that this was the time where she was going to get her ass kicked, and she was going to have to accept it, then maybe things would get better. That’s just how life goes. First, Chloe just slapped her across the face, and nothing happened. In her mind, it was pathetic that the girl was just allowing this to happen to her, that she was making no attempt to fight back, and it made her want to hurt the girl even more. She wondered if maybe she had fully broken her, that there was nothing more she could do at this point, but she only took that as a personal challenge.

Two more slaps, harder than the first, and the girl carried on, red imprints of hands across her face. Then, a punch, directly in the gut, same response. A kick in the stomach seemed like it would do the trick, to at least get the girl to try to spit the toilet paper out of her mouth, but other than the immediate reaction to the blow, the show went on as normal. This was starting to piss Chloe off. She put her foot on one of the girl’s knees, then collected a handful of hair in her hand, and after a little pause, where she had to let out a chuckle, she began to tear out the hair from the girls head, and the girl finally showed a reaction, she finally grabbed Chloe’s arm and tried to stop her. However, the reaction wasn’t everything, it was just a sort of bonus, and she was really just waiting to be interrupted, so she could leave and go back to class. Waiting for her signal to stop, as the girl was fighting her arm, she decided to use the hair she was clutching to steer the girl’s head into the wall of the stall. One, two, three, and then the hair was released.

Yet, the girl, although now very disoriented, still held onto the arm, still clutched as if she was begging for it to stop, or if this was her attempt to fight back, but whichever it was, it still annoyed the shit out of Chloe, so enjoyed getting the girl to let go. Now that she had found the girl’s fighting spirit, she was ready to break it. She had never wanted anything more in life than to break that girl’s spirit, to leave her as a shell of a person, to be the reason that the innocent girl would commit suicide. So, in order to do that, she started to get more creative, she started to get in the zone.

Placing the sole of her right shoe onto the girl’s face, and pressing it back, she attempted to get her hands to let go, which eventually happened, after enough pressure was applied, but Chloe made sure to grab one of the girl’s arms, to keep her foot on the girl’s face, and began to wrench back the arm that was in her possession. Twisting, bending, shaking, the arm was forced into positions that it should never have been put in, and very slowly it started to give, until Chloe could hear, and feel, that smile inducing snap. Exhaling, giving an “ahh” as if she just drank some refreshing drink in a commercial, she listened intently for the girl’s faint howling, for any signs of anybody else entering the bathroom, but they were still alone.

Feeling the girl frantically claw at her leg, feeling blood drawn, her own blood, Chloe decided that the girl had not yet reached her limit, and that she would have to step things up. Suddenly, she remembered the pen in her pocket, and she felt like she had a break through. After removing her foot, and smacking the panicked girl’s good hand away, she watched for a short while as the girl first clutched her broken arm, and then tried to remove the gag from her mouth. However, Chloe then placed a hand firmly against the girl’s mouth, and even though the victim tried, desperately, to remove the hand that ensured her silence, she was too weak to do anything, even with all of the adrenaline. Uncapping the pen, Chloe listened again to see if anyone had walked into the bathroom yet, but nobody ever came, so she moved the tip of the pen towards the panicked girl’s widening eye.

#Free Write #Short Story #Writers on Tumblr #Bullying #High School

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politicalfilth-blog · 8 years ago

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20 Years For 3 Pills — Cops Prey Online Lonely Teen, Entrap Him During Cruel Online Dating Scheme

We Are Change

(TFTP) A year-and-a-half ago, several Monroe County, TN police departments set up an elaborate drug sting to take down what the police perceived to be known drug dealers in the area. The message they wanted to send, according to Sherriff Tommy Jones II was, “If you are involved in any type of drug activity…you will find yourself in prison. This will not be tolerated.”

According to the Advocate and Democrat News’ official story of the sting operation, “the streets of Monroe County and its municipalities saw a lot of drugs removed last week as an operation that began in February culminated with 72 indictments being handed down and arrests made from one end of the county to another.”

One of those indicted was Cameron McKenzie Rake of Maryville, TN. Rake says he was blindsided by the arrest, and he is telling quite a different story than the one the police are sharing with the media. Rake says he was no drug dealer at all, just a guy looking to hook up with a pretty woman he met online. “I was on a dating website called MeetMe,” an app on his smartphone he explains he used to meet new friends.

There was a girl on there, “that talked to me first,” he said intimating she had an interest in him. The conversation on Meet Me quickly turned to drugs. Rake said she “asked me to come sell her pills” something he found strange because he said she didn’t even know him. Rake said her profile picture suggested she was into drugs. He described her profile to the Free Thought Project as having “posted wanting and asking for pills” and said she “made assumptions to me that we would be able to hook up”.

“I asked her multiple times if she was a cop or associated with any law enforcement agency and she kept saying ‘no,’” he said, regretting the day he ever connected with her online. “My dumb ass believed her,” Rake said, lamenting the whole ordeal which eventually led to his arrest.

“She even said she’d pay me for whatever I found and I kept telling her I didn’t know where anything was but that I would look around,” he said indicating he wasn’t a drug dealer at all, just a guy looking to hook up with a girl he met online.

Rake then described what happened next. “I found some morphine pills and took them to her and she met up with me and came up to my car window and asked for the pills I showed her then she tossed the money in my lap and started to walk off,” he said, not knowing the woman was an undercover police officer.

“I asked, ‘I thought we were going to hang out?’. And she said, ‘Oh, I’m busy. I gotta go!’” Rake then said she got into her truck and drove off. He stated he only brought her three pills. He described what happened next. “About a mile-and-a-half later, I got pulled over,” he said adding the cops, “got me out of my car put me in handcuffs.”

Rake explained that he asked for a lawyer before and after being read his Miranda rights. “I asked multiple times for my lawyer and wasn’t given one.” He also said the cops were selectively recording his statements with their body cameras. “They had a body cam and turned it on and off at crucial moments when I said important things and made it look like they had done nothing wrong!”

It takes a truly callous and depraved person to prey upon the loneliness of an individual in order to dupe them into finding them drugs just to bust them. Shameful.

Rake feels entrapped by the police actions of that fateful night. He said he was only looking for a date. He doesn’t think it is right for the police to pretend to be a pretty girl in order to tempt teenagers into committing illegal activities. Making matters worse for Rake, he had a long gun in his trunk.

“They searched my car and found my shotgun in the trunk under about 10 pounds of dirty laundry,” he said, admitting he did have a concealed firearm in his possession. He admits his current lawyer isn’t much help. “My lawyer is really shitty and doesn’t know what the hell he is doing,” admitting that the best his lawyer has been able to do for him is arrange a plea deal for 10 years in prison for “possession, sale and delivery of a schedule 2 narcotic” and “possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony”.

READ MORE: “Bathroom Cops” Arresting Men in Public Bathrooms After “Shaking Off” When Done Urinating

The now 21-year-old, who was 19 at the time of his arrest, is fearing the worst. “So I’m going [to go to prison] for about 20 years on January 20th,” Rake told The Free Thought Project.

Rake was indicted on charges of possession of Morphine and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He’s currently looking for a capable attorney, “I need someone who will be able to reduce the charges and fight this for me. This was ridiculous. I feel like I was basically raped by the police department and set up for failure from the beginning since this occurred.” He says he wants to go to trial before a jury and fight the entrapment of which he feels to be the victim.

As The Free Thought Project has faithfully reported, the War on Drugs catches all types in its dragnet. Often times, young men like Rake get caught up in the dragnet with bigger fish. But Rake, a young man now facing the loss of decades of his life, isn’t blind. He sees that the police were not working for his good when they pretended to be a hot looking female teenager looking to hook up online.

Rake is not alone either. Dozens of other men, just like him, were taken advantage of by police pretending to be attractive females looking for dates. Many of these folks had nothing to do with drugs and ONLY sought them out to be less lonely.

Rake explains that he wants justice but doesn’t believe the three pills he took the young girl that night equates to 20 years of his life. He says he got the pills from an aunt of a friend of his. He says he was 15 when he started going to the dating site to “meet friends.” He says he’s met “more than 100 people” in and around Knoxville using the MeetMe app on his phone.

“I’m not even remotely a drug dealer. I haven’t had anything to do with drugs in my life. I’ve never touched drugs in my life. I’ve seen the devastating effect drugs have had on my life and my friends’ lives…This was the first time I’ve ever messed with it and it was basically to get a girls attention.” Rake says he doesn’t even smoke marijuana but admits to smoking cigarettes.

The young man says the 12-gauge shotgun found in his trunk was there because he and his best friend go hunting on his friend’s 500 acres. “He lives on the land and we just hunt for coyotes that go after his chickens. We also hunt for deer and squirrel,” he said.

Rake attended and graduated William Blount High School in Maryville, TN, and is now attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, but hasn’t started back this semester because he’s unsure if he’s going to go back to college or off to prison.

Rake says he has never been arrested prior to crossing paths with the Vonore Police Department. He admits that he’d had some trouble with the law in the past, but they were just minor traffic violations, nothing criminal. He was never charged with any other crime and says he doesn’t know why he cannot get any leniency from the courts. Rake grew up in a church. His father was a pastor of a Lutheran Church for many years in Maryville. He says his dad was very upset with the fact that the police department lured him into providing pills to a stranger he met online.

“Being lonely kinda screws with your head sometimes,” Rake said regretting the whole ordeal.

Rake worries whether speaking out will help or hurt his chances at a reduced sentence. But he takes comfort in telling his story in the hopes that some other hapless teenager out there doesn’t get suckered into a sting operation like he did.

As The Free Thought Project has reported on numerous occasions, police officers have the discretion on whether or not to file charges against someone. But in a major sting operation wherein multiple police departments are involved, the lone police officer who would be willing to go out on a limb for a guy like Rake simply won’t step forward. The end result is the feeding of the Prison Industrial Complex machine with fresh meat to sustain its inmate population and further the highly lucrative prison industry.

Cameron has since set up a fund to help with his legal fees. Please help if you can.

The post 20 Years For 3 Pills — Cops Prey Online Lonely Teen, Entrap Him During Cruel Online Dating Scheme appeared first on We Are Change.

from We Are Change http://wearechange.org/20-years-3-pills-cops-prey-online-lonely-teen-entrap-cruel-online-dating-scheme/

#We are Change #We Are Change

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