#also one of the only movies I have ever seen that accurately represented social media down to the stream comments

[justagaycryptid]

Thinking about Spree (2020) again

[girlactionfigure]

There's something I need to get off my chest.

I'm an Ultra-Orthodox, Chassidic, Hareidi Jew. I live in Jerusalem, in an area that is exclusively Ultra-Orthodox Hareidi for street after street, suburb after suburb, for miles and miles. In all of these neighborhoods where the roads are blocked off and no cars drive on Shabbos, each black-hat-wearing family has many many children and literally no TV’s. I personally only ever wear black and white clothes, my wife only dresses in Chassidic levels of tznius (modesty), and my boys and girls all attend mainstream Hareidi Chassidic schools where the main language is Yiddish. My kids don’t and never will have smartphones, nor have they ever been on the internet at all. Period. They don’t know what social media is and they’ve never seen a movie — not even Disney animation. 

Having lived exclusively immersed in this culture for the last 21 years, I think I'm sufficiently qualified and well-researched enough to state that the consistent depiction of Hareidim and Torah Judaism by mainstream media, from Netflix to the daily news, is somewhere between delusion, slander and the literal equivalent of racism. If you consider yourself less closed-minded than how you imagine we Hareidim to be, then permit me to share a few personal details about my family, and other families in our neighborhood, to see how well your mental narrative matches up to reality:

- Besides learning Torah each day, most of the men in our neighborhood work full or part-time.

- Many women in our area work. Some even manage their own business or company. These are not special or “liberated” women — it’s so normal here it’s not even a discussion point.

- My wife is a full-time mother by choice, who despite attending an Ivy League College,  finds it a profound and meaningful thing to dedicate her life to. If she didn’t, she’d go get a job. Mind you, she also attends Torah classes each week, works out with both a female fitness coach (who’s gay) and a frum Pilates instructor, writes and edits articles for a couple global websites and magazines, and personally mentors a number of women. None of this is seen as unusual. 

- Kids in our community go to Torah schools where they learn (surprise!) Torah. They are fluent in three languages from a young age and the boys even read and understand a fourth (Aramaic). All the kids learn grammar, math and science. Weekly after-school activities have included music (violin, drums, piano), Tae Kwon Do, swimming, art, woodworking and robotics. The girls' school teaches tools of emotional intelligence. The principal of the boys' school doesn't hesitate to refer to kids to OT if needed. I practice meditation with my children multiple times each week. None of our kids think the world is literally 6,000 years old. They devour books about science and think it’s cool. They know dinosaurs existed and don’t find that existentially threatening. They have a telescope with which they love to watch the stars. 

- The women in my family (like the men) only dress modestly according to Hareidi standards. The girls don't find this burdensome or oppressive. Period. They aren't taught that beauty is bad. They're certainly not taught to hate their bodies, God forbid. Each morning when they get dressed, they are as happily into their own fashion and looking pretty as any secular girl is. They just have a different sense of fashion than secular culture dictates. (Unfortunately for me,  it's no cheaper.)

- The local Hareidi rabbis we receive guidance from are deep, warm, sensitive, supportive and emotionally intelligent. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t go to them.

- My boys assume they will grow up to learn Torah, as much as they want to, and then when they’re ready, get a good job or learn a profession to support whatever lifestyle they choose. My girls assume they’ll be wives and mothers (which they can’t wait for) but they're also warmly encouraged to train in whatever other profession they desire. (My 9-year-old daughter, chatting with her friend in the living room, just commented, "I want to be a mother and a teacher and an artist." Her friend replied, "I'm going to be a ballet teacher.") All options are on the table, and their future seems bright.

- We love living in modern Israel, feel proud and blessed to be here, and frequently count and celebrate its blessings. Everyone in my area votes. Sometimes not even for Hareidi parties. I pay taxes. (And they’re expensive!)

- As a Hareidi person, I’m glad we have Hareidi representation in the government — though I don’t always love or approve of how the Hareidi politicians act, or what they choose to represent. For the record, I'm equally dubious about secular politicians, as well. 

- While I don't spend much time in Tel Aviv, I do have a few close Hareidi entrepreneur friends who have founded high-tech start-ups there, and are — Boruch Hashem! — doing very well.   

- We don’t hate all non-religious people. Our kids don’t throw stones at passing cars on Shabbos. I doubt they even know anyone who would do that or think that it’s ok. We frequently talk about the Torah value of caring for and being compassionate towards everyone. As a family, we proactively try to find ways to judge others favorably (even those people who throw stones at passing cars on Shabbos.)

- We invite all manner of religious and secular Jews to join our Shabbos meals each week and the kids are open, happy, and confident to welcome everyone. (No, we're not Chabad.) One of the many reasons for having such guests at our table is to teach the kids this lesson.

- While we would technically be classified as right-wing and we don’t at all buy the modern “Palestinian” narrative, we certainly don’t hate all Arabs, nor do we have any desire to expel them all from the land. We warmly welcome anyone seeking to dwell here with us in peace and we are pained and saddened to see the suffering and loss of lives of all innocent Arab families and children — as would any decent human being.

- Of the few local families I know whose kids no longer identify as religious, none at all chose to disown their kids. The very thought, in such lovingly family-dedicated communities, is hard to imagine. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just saying it's not as common as it's made out. Rather, these families have tirelessly, profoundly, compassionately committed to maintaining any connection with their children, and to emphasize that, no matter what, family is the most important thing. Because it is.

- We aren't just living our life blindly, dogmatically following empty religious rules; rather, we are frequently engaged with, exploring and discussing Torah's richness, depth and meaning. Our kids honestly love learning Torah, praying and doing mitzvos. They’re visibly excited about Shabbos and festivals. This lifestyle is in no way oppressive or burdensome for them. If you suggested to them it was, they’d laugh and think you were crazy.  

- We Hareidim are normal people: we laugh, we cry, we buy too much Ikea furniture, and we struggle with all of life's daily ups and downs, just like the rest of you. Some of our communities are more healthy and balanced, some are less so; some of our people are warmer, nicer and more open, some are more closed, dogmatic and judgmental; some of our leaders are noble and upstanding, and some are quite frankly idiots…JUST LIKE ANY SECULAR NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE WORLD TOO. But having grown up living a secular lifestyle myself, and today being Hareidi-by-choice, I can testify that in these communities there is generally a greater and more tangible sense of well-being, warmth, tranquility, connection and meaning. We love and feel blessed to be living this life and wouldn’t want any other.

If this description of Hareidi life is hard to swallow, be careful not to push back with the often-used defenses like: "Well, you're just an exception to the rule...", "You're just American Hareidim", "You're baalei teshuvah", "Well, I know a bunch of Haredim that aren't like that at all"....because the truth is, while there might be many Hareidim who aren't like what I described above, it's still an accurate description of literally hundreds of thousands of Hareidim in Israel and the US — a decent portion of all Hareidim in the world. Which is my very point — how come you never see this significant Hareidi demographic represented in the media, television series, or the news? How come we mostly see the darkest and most problematic cliches instead? 

And finally, if all the facts I've listed above about our communities are hard for you to accept as true, then perhaps the image you have in your head about Hareidim is less based on facts and reality and more based on stereotypes, fear, hate, and discrimination — like any other form of prejudice in the world. 

Care to prove me wrong? Well, you're welcome to come argue it out with me and my family at our Shabbos table on Friday night. It would be a joy and honor to have you. 

Doniel Katz

[animatedminds]

Splash Mountain, Br’er Rabbit, and the Tragedy of Being Represented By Other People.

So, this is probably going to be the realest post I’ll make for a while - or at least until The Boondocks arrives, but it seemed apropos. Immediately after this I’ve got rants about sci fi and Star Wars and other unrelated things coming up, but for now we have my earnest opinions on a decision I feel should have been better thought out than it was. This is going to read more like an article or an essay than a review, but I think it needs to be said.

It hasn’t come up too often on this blog, but I am African American. It’s my life and my perspective. And as an African American, a lover of animation and - though this definitely doesn’t come up on the blog - a passionate folklorist in what you could call an academic sense (in that I’m a writer and a student, and folklore is the subject of most of my research), people I know in real life have asked me more than once what my opinion on the removal of Splash Mountain in favor of Princess and the Frog, how I must be glad it’s finally being removed, what my take on the history there was, and…

Well…

To really give that opinion, I’ve got to start at the beginning. Not Song of the South - that, if anything, is the very middle. We have to start with Br’er Rabbit and who that character was. Sit back students, info dump incoming.

Br’er Rabbit is an folklore character of African American origin with - like many folkloric figures - a difficult to place date of origin, but he was known to have existed at least since the early 19th Century, He has obvious similarities to the far older figure of Anansi - with several Br’er Rabbit tales even taking elements of Anansi stories verbatim - though with a the notable difference that unlike Anansi, Br’er Rabbit was more often a heroic figure: an underdog and seemingly downtrodden figure who used his wits and his enemies’ hubris rather than physical force to win the day. The meaning of that kind of figure to an enslaved people is obvious, especially when you compare Br’er Rabbit to another, contemporary trickster figure in African American history by the name of John. Br’er Rabbit’s stories could even arguably be seen as a more child-friendly version of the John tales, in which a human trickster pulls the same kind of momentum turning ploys on villains - but those villains tended to be explicitly slave masters or overseers, and John’s payback often came with explicitly deadly results. The existence of John as escapism for the enslaved or just-post-enslaved (IE Reconstruction) populations is clear: a person who with no power who could fight back with nothing but their mind, preying on the fact that their enemies see them as incapable and helpless, and the connection of Br’er Rabbit to that message is difficult to deny. If anything, Br’er Rabbit comes off as a somewhat more child-friendly version of the concept.

But the most important thing to glean from this is who and what Br’er Rabbit is: a product of the African American community and its history, as a means of those people to express themselves and their values in the face of oppression.

Now we fast forward to 1881, and along comes Joel Chandler Harris: a white Georgian. Harris was a folklorist himself, and travelled the country collecting stories - most famously Br’er Rabbit stories. His stated reason was to bridge African American and white communities by sharing stories, but he was tainted by the perspectives of his world and his place in it, infamously creating a framing narrative for those stories in which the character telling them exuded the imagery of subservience and simplicity that was typical of perceptions of African Americans from the post-Civil War Southern environment in which he collected them: Uncle Remus, in other words. Harris is hardly the only white curator who adapted stories of black or brown peoples in a way that played up the people the stories came from as something of a theme park piece, as if noble in unintelligence and simplicity, but he’s one of the most famous ones to do so - and that’s because of the adaptation. To note, when people criticize cultural appropriation, this is the kind of thing that really triggers the outrage. Not any situation in which a white person is inspired by someone who isn’t white and creates something accordingly, but situations where someone else’s creation is taken and used for the fame and profit of others, to the detriment of the people who made it. It’s these situations like the one Joel Chandler Harris created centuries ago, specifically, that people are trying to draw attention to - even if sometimes social media gets a bit trigger happy sometimes, that’s the real, underlying problem. With that in mind, let’s put that aside and move forward.

Fast forward again to 1946. Walt Disney Productions, then less the company of grander, wider scale stories of epic quests and emotional upheaval that make us all cry and more a company more known for folktale adaptations in general, were looking for a but of American folklore to headline a live action, animation mix - a medium that allowed a bit more financial benefit, as straightforward animation was not always particularly profitable those dates. This wouldn’t be the last time they produced an adaptation of an American folktale or short story - their version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a few years later being actually one of the more faithful adaptations of that short story put to film. Disney, who evidently read Chandler Harris’ stories, put together a project to see if they could adapted. Which they did. Pretty much verbatim. This is actually worth pointing out: the actual Br’er Rabbit stories in the films are very accurately adapted, and the actors involved in the story (including James Baskett, how also played Uncle Remus) did a fine job characterizing them. The issue is that Disney also adapted Chandler Harris’ stereotypical and offensive framing device pretty much verbatim, bringing Uncle Remus. And therein lies the problem.

To put the issue with Song of the South in perspective, the movie - with the framing device - can be categorized as something called Reconstruction Revisionism - which is basically a genre of post-Civil War media meant to present the pre-war South was perfect and idyllic, and that people are racially more natural in that environment’s dynamic and never should have left. One of the most infamous movies in history, Birth of a Nation, is the crowning example of this genre. Obviously, Song of the South is nowhere near as awful and inflammatory a movie as that, but there’s a degree to which it was seen as the straw the broke the camel’s back for black depictions in media, only a couple of years after Disney’s Dumbo also did the same. The end result, an African American creation was used in a film that ultimately demeaned the African American community, a decision that Disney has been ashamed of ever since.

Fast forward to now. Disney is removing Splash Mountain, the sole remnant of Song of the South that focuses exclusively on Br’er Rabbit - a choice we’ve had reason to suspect was coming for about a year now, but which was unveiled conspicuously in the middle of protests and campaigning for better treatment of people of African descent worldwide. The reveal was a rousing success, with people applauding the decision to finally wipe away the rest of that movie - though remember that for later, that the response relies on the perception of Br’er Rabbit as something that starts with Song of the South - and replace it with something else. Surely, as a black person I should be happy that they’re finally getting rid of that racist character for good and replacing him with something more positive? And again, well…

To put short, Br’er Rabbit has finished his journey from African cultural symbol to discarded pariah, all because others used the character in racist ways that they themselves now regret. And for that… let’s be clear, I’m not angry so much as saddened. I’m not railing against the company for making the choice, since I can see how from their point of view it was the wisest and most progressive thing to do. Song of the South is a badly old fashioned movie that they’re right to want to move on from, and it’s their right to downplay characters within their purview if those characters reflect badly on the company. I’m just outlining the tragic waste of it all.

For now, compare Princess and the Frog - the thing they’re replacing it with. I do love the movie, or at least any problems I have with it have little to do with representation, and I definitely don’t have anything against Musker and Clements and their beautiful visions and creations, but it’s difficult to deny that its an adaptation of a European story, adapted by a collection of mostly white creators (with Rob Edwards comprising but one third of the screenwriting team, but not of story conception), that’s ultimately just dolled up with African Americans characters and a very Hollywood-esque depiction of a African diaspora religion (Voodoo, which unfortunately has a long history of such portrayals). If we’re talking about representation specifically - which this move had definitely been presented as a champion for - it’s not the perfect example, more of a story with a surface covering of the black experience than one with an especially strong connection. That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem (Tiana and her story do well depict strong black characterizations, and approach an interesting (if light_ implication about racism and hardship during the 1920s) if Disney had yet created any other franchise that was another actual adaptation of an African or African American tale or story (with involvement from such actual people), but Song of the South is actually it. They legitimately have nothing else to call on.

This is something I feel we should do more to remedy. I am a writer/prospective screenwriter myself, and trying to put more stories out there is one of my primary focuses and goals should I ever truly enter the industry, but at the moment we just don’t have very many options.

This is hardly the only time that people of color have had little control over depictions of their own culture - literary and film history is full of such situations in both minor and terribly major ways - but it’s something that stings especially hard due to being such a current example, and because of sheer irony of the end result. Now we have a situation where African Americans are being told that something their people created to represent themselves is negative and wrong, because years ago other people appropriated that creation and used it to paint a negative picture of the people who actually held claim over it, and now the enterprise that those people created wants to save face: another example of culture being treated like a possession of the ones who are poised to make money of off it. And what’s worse, while the culture is used and abused like trash, the people are now presented with this removal like it was a prize - like they’re finally being given something - when little has really changed.

Ultimately, the Splash Mountain news - though it had been coming for a while - made me rather upset for that reason. As a studier of folklore, I suppose I knew better than most where these things came from, and so the buzz around the move being a belief that Br’er Rabbit was an intrinsically racist character just highlighted the tragedy of how African Americans and their culture tended to be tossed about by American media. So no matter what, I can’t feel particularly happy about it.

Let me iterate, in the film industry, being represented by people who aren’t of your culture group is basically inevitable. That’s essentially how the industry works. I’m not saying we should rail against anyone who would try to represent cultures that aren’t their own. The people who produce and create are few, and eventually the truth is that you have to be represented by other people - at least for the moment. We shouldn’t be railing against representation by others in general, as that wouldn’t be cognizant of the situation and thus self destructive. What I’m saying is that we - both we trying to be represented, and those doing the representing - should be aware of the problem there: that when others choose to represent you in media, you essentially have to trust them to have a real interest in you and your best interests when doing so, and when they don’t that depiction is there forever. So it behooves us to try to be the ones who are representing ourselves as much as possible, and in situations where we can’t, to remind those who want to represent us that they have a responsibility to do so effectively.

This is Animated Minds for Animated Times, and really this blog is ultimately about emphasizing what makes animated media work, what makes it fun, and what makes it worthwhile no matter how old you are. And so in several years of sporadic and infrequent reviews, reactions and fandom posts it’s been rare for me to get this real about a topic, but this is something that is a serious issue feel was overlooked. Representation is complicated. And more often than not solutions that are handed to us are more band-aids that look like cures than necessarily being actually helpful, and that’s what happens when ultimately the decisions about how you’re represented lie in the hands of other people. Representation is one of the biggest things we need to work on in coming years, especially with stories and adaptations - which refer to history and culture that are often not widely known or accepted. Ask someone if they think there should be an African princess, and they’ll tell you they didn’t even have kings and queens in Africa - something that’s bluntly wrong, but is widely believed simply because those elements of culture are never represented.

And that’s the sum of my thoughts on the subject. I hadn’t updated the blog in months because this whole thing was stewing in me, and I couldn’t really go back to cheerful posts about new things until I got it out. I’ve got great thoughts about the Owl House, Amphibia, the new seasons of BH6 and Ducktales that are totally coming up soon. But for now, just a few sobering thoughts from someone who grew up loving cartoons, and desperately wishes people like me had more to look at in that field beyond apologies and promises.

[agir1ukn0w]

Attention Reylo Fam!

After hearing some disturbing rumors on social media that Lucasfilm may be considering pulling back the release of The Rise of Kylo Ren in order to change some major plot details of Ben Solo’s journey to becoming Kylo Ren (specifically his involvement in the destruction of Luke’s academy), I have decided to write a letter to Lucasfilm asking them, if the rumors are indeed true, not to do so. Obviously it is more than likely that the things I’ve been hearing are no more than supposition, given that I’ve only seen them on Tumblr, however I would still like to voice some of my concerns and the collective concerns of the fandom to Lucasfilm if there is a small chance they will receive my letter and take it seriously.

I have just finished my first draft, and I wanted to post it here so that you may read it and give me suggestions on things I should change or add on in the comments. I value the input of my reylo family, and I want to be as truthful and accurately representative of the feelings of the collective fandom as I can. I will post the draft below the cut, and also, if you would like your name to be included in the signing of the letter (either your blog url or, if you are comfortable, your real name), please let me know and I will add you to the list.

Dear Disney Lucasfilm Ltd.,

I would like to preface this letter by saying think you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all the wonderment and inspiration that you have given me these past four years of my life. These movies, tv shows, books, etc. have been a cornerstone of my cultural upbringing since before I can remember and I personally believe that Star Wars is the single greatest tale in the history of the world. I thank you with all my heart for carrying it forward so honorably.

That being said, I still very much believe in this story’s potential to be a beacon of empowerment for those who feel so disenfranchised and even oppressed in the real world. I still believe that this story is capable of making children look up and believe in themselves and their power to make a difference.

I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand the reasons why you made the choices you made with regards to Episode IX: TROS. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. No work of art can possibly please everyone, and I would also like to thank the cast and crew for working so hard and putting their entire souls into these projects these past several years.

This has all been a roundabout way of coming to the main point of my letter to you. Specifically, this letter concerns the character Ben Solo.

I’m sure that you have been hearing and seeing a variety of heated emotions on social media concerning the fate of this character. The first time I met him way back in TFA, I knew that he was someone special; even then I felt a very deep connection with his struggle and began to root for him. The arc that you gave him in TROS was beautiful, and everything I really wanted to see. I’d been hoping for his redemption for a long time, and to see it so beautifully acted on screen was truly inspiring. Although I must say that I really could have done without his death, for the purpose of this particular letter, I will digress from that opinion, even though I know for a fact that I am not the only one who holds it. At the end of the day, Ben’s storyline was fulfilled because he overcame the darkness within him, helped Rey to defeat the ultimate Evil, and brought her back to life with his love. I couldn’t have asked for more.

However, I have been hearing rumors on social media which are very concerning. A few people have suggested that Lucasfilm plans to pull back the release of the comic The Rise of Kylo Ren by Charles Soule in order to change some of the major details of Ben Solo’s story to better fit with what happened in the movie. Specifically, I am referring to the very important fact that Ben actually didn’t kill his fellow students in cold blood and that he didn’t set his uncle’s academy on fire. I don’t know if this rumor is even true, and I pray that it isn’t. The fact that I have as yet only seen these rumors on social media leads me to believe that there is little probability to it.

However, I cannot convey to you the depth of my despair should they turn out to be true. And I know that I am not alone. The fandom has already seen the plates, clearly showing that it was not Ben who set fire to his uncle’s academy. It would be a huge mistake to completely redo them now, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that you would lose the good faith and trust of many people in this fanbase.

I have written this letter to implore you all at Lucasfilm, if these rumors are indeed true, to please rethink your strategies; Speak with your fans directly, understand their viewpoints and how important this character is to so many. I won’t tell you how much I personally love and care for the character of Ben Solo so as not to take up too much space in the letter, but there are many others who love him feel a much deeper connection with the character than I. Should you chose to do this, you would not only be drastically changing important details of the character’s life, but you would also be taking his own past from him. So many dedicated fans will feel disenfranchised. Furthermore, your sales would go down drastically. I cannot tell you how devastated the vast majority of your fans would be. We all want justice for Ben Solo, and if we cannot have it through him living a long and happy life, we deserve to see it through the truthful telling of his past.

Both Disney and Lucasfilm have been major centers of hope and inspiration for me throughout my life. The messages that you send, that even those who have made terrible decisions in their lives can be gravely misunderstood by others, and that they can always make things right, is extremely important to me. And the story of Ben Solo is one which I have followed closely since I saw The Force Awakens for the first time. I believed in his ability to redeem himself even before the information that what happened at Luke’s academy wasn’t his fault came out. Even when it was assumed that he had killed his fellow students, I believed in him because that is what Star Wars is about. Belief, hope, and understanding. In The Last Jedi, Leia says, “Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it, you’ll never make it through the night.” I have held on to that message ever since I heard it, and it has gotten me through many tough, emotional times in my life. I know that you respect your fans, and we as a fandom have not given up hope that you will do what is right for these characters.

Once again, before I close out this letter, please accept my deepest gratitude for all that this company has done to bring Star Wars into a new generation, inspiring us to go forward and create our own stories and modern myths. I am, and always will be proud to be a Star Wars fan.

Sincerely,

…………

Let me know what you guys think, I am excited to mail this letter!

Peace, Love, and Reylo💜

[glassprism]

Are there certain aspects of the phandom, or interpretations of the show that you a bit repetitive or even annoying? I understand it, but I find it kinda reductive when people say 'the show is about Christine's PURITY and X represents SEX with Y showing...' etcetc, like there's nothing to her character except her virtue, and I know Gillian Lynne said stuff along those lines but still..., Another one for me is a Christine's hair colour like yeah it's interesting but um ok. (Also Rierra ughstoppp)

Oh, I feel you on the whole “sex vs. chastity” interpretation. It is a theme and does underlie part of Christine’s conflict, but sometimes people act like it’s the only theme running through the story, and that’s when you get weird-ass opinions like this. Nope, nothing about Christine growing by letting go of her grief, nothing about the Phantom’s redemption, it’s just sex and passion, that’s all a woman’s growth is all about.

The “blonde vs. brunette!” debate is also so old; I enjoy examining the various shades Christine actresses get as a whole, but I got sick of it come the Stockholm revival, where all anyone talked about was Emmi Christensson’s wig change. It gets especially galling when people use it as the sole indicator of whether an adaptation is more accurate to Leroux’s novel, and yes, I have seen that, I have seen people claim the 1990 miniseries with Charles Dance is closer to Leroux because Christine is blonde, which is like... what. There’s more to book accuracy than a character’s hair color!

Random misconceptions are sometimes tedious, things like Christine’s age (no, she is not 16 except in the 2004 movie and a poor translation of the novel), what “slave of fashion” means (it does not mean you are into fashion), that ALW chooses every cast member of every production ever (he does not), Christine and the Phantom had sex sometime during the original show (NO).

This is more in regards to the phandom on social media other than Tumblr or Discord (ahem, Facebook), but boy am I sick of the “Raoul vs. Erik” debates. I’m so tired of people constantly pitting and contrasting them to each other. You know what’s a really fascinating area of study? Finding their similarities. Ooh... but it’s mainly because, come on, people have been arguing over this for literal decades, both sides are quite chill with each other because they know they’ll never agree, stop asking which “team” you are on, I am begging you. One day you’ll see me snap and go running in the streets, Homer Simpson-style, shouting, “Erik and Raoul are the same person! It’s a conspiracy, people!”

I’m so tired of people pulling out the same old anti-Raoul arguments. “He didn’t notice Christine until she was in the spotlight!” (So? I’ve literally walked past my best friend because I didn’t expect her to be there and wasn’t looking for her.) “He didn’t believe Christine!” (I love Christine but she was hysterical and talking about a ghost, of course he wouldn’t.) “He forced her to be bait!” (He was in a sucky situation, doing the best that he can.) “He was gaslighting her!” (Not. The definition. Of gaslighting.) I’ve literally read people saying that Raoul was marrying Christine so he could be rich and famous, and I was boggled that people would have such a poor grasp of social class in the 1800s. (Y’all, Raoul is a vicomte and patron of the opera house, he’s already rich. And marrying Christine is marrying down, she’s not a frigging pop star.)

And this is probably because I have a YouTube account and upload videos of other casts, but it does get tiring to see people compared (often poorly) to Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess. It’s annoying if people do it using some of the other “Big Four” casts (Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum, Ben Lewis and Anna O’Byrne, though they’re to a much lesser extent), but the comparisons to Karimloo and Boggess seem to be most frequent right now. Heck, I don’t care if people prefer them, so long as it looks like they at least gave a different cast a shot (e.g. “Ramin will always be my top, but David Thaxton really brings a different element to the role”), but more than once I’ve seen someone hop onto a video and just go, “Yup, this just proves Ramin is the top, bye!” and I’m left wondering, “Why did you watch this. Did you really click on the video willing to give another cast a chance, or did you go there solely with the attitude that so-and-so is the best and will never, ever be beaten?”

EDIT: Just remembered this one - no, a new proshot is not going to come out. It’s not going to come out just because you love that cast so, so much and think they’re oh-so-deserving of a filmed version. It’s not going to make enough money to justify the cost, no matter how big you think the phandom is.

Also, some things that seem to always pop up: yes, I know Ramin Karimloo played Christine’s father in the 2004 film. Yes, I know he’s the only one to play all three of “Christine’s loves”, ooh how special for him. Yes, I’ve seen that video of Nick Pitera. I’ve seen that video of Lindsay Stirling.

Ah, those are the major ones for now; it’s pretty dependent on the “mood” the phandom feels (like right now the last one is pretty prevalent because the 25th anniversary concert was streamed a few weeks ago, but it always dies down). Makes me realize how long I’ve been here... the things I’ve seen...

[jad110]

LGBTQ and BIPOC in Media Blog #3

In this unit, we watched five films that involve LGBTQ and BIOPIC themes. I believe that these films can be considered “Queer” style films. In my opinion, a film can be considered “queer” when it shows the challenges and hardships of the LGBTQ community. The representation of characters in the community through a stylistic or aesthetic approach. Each of these films shows different LGBTQ stories that present differently. Queer films involve unique editing and other visual details to show the characters. These different elements help show the audience the message and represent the LGBTQ community. I believe that in “queer” style films there is a lot of emphasis on nature and natural beauty. In “Brokeback Mountain” the setting for the majority of the film is in the beautiful mountains surrounded by wildlife and greens. “Call Me By Your Name” takes place in the beautiful countryside of Italy with natural lakes and lots of trees with colorful flowers and fruits. The environment in “Moonlight” shows how rough life can be but also how beauty can be revealed. “Mysterious Skin” and “Boy’s Don’t Cry” show the beauty in a small town with secrets. Truthfully, I have never seen any of these films and probably would never pick out these films to watch, but I enjoyed all of them in different ways. 

Queer-style stories show challenges and breakthroughs of who you really are. The film “Moonlight” is an excellent movie and I think that it represents the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) very well. This movie had a full cast of POC. This movie shows the struggle that Chiron, a quiet black kid who had a very troubling life. Throughout Chiron’s life, he had been bullied and neglected by his parents. Chiron ran away from his bullies right into Juan’s life. ( 3:50-5:40). Juan is a local honest man who also happens to be a drug dealer. This film showed the emotional trauma that many black men go through. Black men are expected to be tough and not very sensitive. Because Chiron was smaller than the other kids and quiet he made for a target for other kids in his town. I believe that Chiron’s race had a big impact on his coming out and how he found his identity. “Moonlight” included many images that are cinematography beautiful and have a queer style to them. Including when Kevin and Chiron find each other together at the beach at night (49:15-56:20). In this scene under the moonlight on the beach, Chiron and Kevin share an intimate experience and were able to show each other their identities. The editing during this scene gives the watcher a mix of nature and touch.  Many people who are LGBTQ have trouble finding their identity growing up. I feel that his story is like many others especially for people of color. I feel that these people are less accepted by the public and family. 

“Boy’s Don’t Cry” and “Moonlight” share the struggles of finding your masculinity and self-expression. Although Brandon did not have to worry about race expression he did have to worry about gender expression like Chiron. Brandon Teena identified as a male but did not want to tell his new group of friends who treated him as one of their own. Brandon tries to conform to the social norms of how men are supposed to act and look. Specifically, Brandon changed how his body looked in order for it to look more masculine. He taped up his breasts and adds socks to his underwear (31:45-32:21).  Unfortunately, things are not allowed as we plan them. Brandon and Lana fall of each other and begin a romantic relationship. When Tom and John find out that Brandon is not biologically male they turn to extreme violence and torture. They exposed his female part to Lana and everyone as a form of torture then they brought him to an abandoned parking lot where they beat and raped him. This action was to disintegrate Brandon’s gender as a male and his identity (1:22:10-1:30:18). The way the visual elements were displayed the watcher really feels for Brandon and allows the watcher to think twice about how we treat people in the LGBTQ community.

“Brokeback Mountain” shared a powerful movie about lovers who did not take their chance for one another. This film showed the way nature will show someone’s true nature. Ennis and Jack worked together for the summer and formed an unexpected relationship. Neither man identified as LGBTQ when they both say that they are not “queer” but formed a love for the other man. They had a bond that they could not explain and that they have never felt before. Even four-plus years later they shared the same feel like the beginning of their relationship. In the end, Jack had died and when Ennis finds out he is completely heartbroken. They had talked about living together and starting a farm but never did because of the time and how the LGBTQ people were treated. Ennis recalls a story to Jack about his dad showing him what happened to a gay man who was beaten and mutilated (1:11:22-1:12:25). Ennis was shown by his father the consequences of being gay and what would happen if he were to be gay. Later when Jack had died his wife says that there was an accident when Jack was changing a tire. Although we see that Jack was a victim of a hate crime just like the man Ennis’s father showed him. Beaten and mutilated to death (1:53:02-1:55:13). I believe that the treatment that Jack went through is similar to Brandon in “Boy’s Don’t Cry.” Both men were killed by people who discriminated against people of the LGBTQ community and the people in it. They were killed as a hate crime to show a message. This way of presenting films shows the gruesome truth of how some LGBTQ are treated.

“Call Me By Your Name” shows a beautiful relationship between two men that blossoms over the summer in Italy.  Elio and Oliver both have trouble speaking up about their feelings. Elio is a young teenager and has not experienced love like how he feels for Oliver. Oliver is not sure that Elio likes him at all. Once they both knew about their feelings for one another they only had a number of days left (2:06:33-2:07:00). They had a very special relationship where they were they were closer than regular friends, more intimate than loves, and have a bond that will change their lives forever. These men were also not characterized as gay in the film. This movie is what I would think about when talking about a “queer” style. The way the characters are represented and the scenery made them seem “perfect”. This movie shows the perfect scenario even though they do not end up together. Their lives were pretty perfect and unattainable. I enjoyed the movie because of the story but in terms of realism, it does not feel like it. In the film, they shared a lot of passion. On their first night together the camera shows the bed they share and then moves outside onto the trees swaying in the summer night. All their passion is surrounded by nature.

 “Mysterious Skin” shows how sexual abuse at a young age can change a person drastically. The coach of a little league took advantage of at least two of his young players, Brian and Neil. Because the boys were so young and not able to really understand the extent of what had happened to them. Neil was abused for a whole summer and believed that his coach actually loved him and thought he was special. He says ”No one ever made me feel that way before or since. I was special.”... “Yeah, but he really loved me. I mean, there were other kids sometimes, but I was his prize.”(1:11:24-1:11:49) He believed that Coach loved him and what he felt during the abuse was the peak of love. I think his willingness to subject himself to abuse in his adult years shows how the abuse followed him. His coach was a father figure in his life and because of this, he grew the compulsion of pleasing older men. He had been “groomed” by his abuser. While Brian was abused by his coach twice but he “blacked out” both times and configures the story of being abducted by aliens. I believe that he came up with this story in order to protect his own mind. Unfortunately, his mind caught up with him and started showing him a different story. He needed answers but only could get them from Neil. I think that this story does not relate to the other films because of the molestation and different consequences.

I feel that many people learn about sexuality and gender from media and films. Films give people different perspectives and learn more about what people are feeling. Although it is good for the representation of the LGBTQ community in films, it is also important for the representation to be correct and accurate. Watching films in Hollywood can influence the minds of young people. More and more shows and movies include someone of the LGBTQ community. The inclusion of them allows more people to be educated.

[another-mexico-oc]

HETALIA AND COUNTRYHUMANS: Pros and Cons

Hi! Before I start PLEASE DON´T MAKE A “WHICH ONE IS THE BEST” WAR, I personally enjoy both fandoms, and both have their good things, as well as their bad things. Also, this is not a “Who did it first” thing, because let´s be honest, national personifications are not a contemporary idea, they have been for several years, there we have Uncle Sam (U.S.A), Marianne (France), John Bull (U.K.), etc. 

So, without further more, let´s go with the analysis:

HETALIA: 

Pros: 

Being the work of a single author, the characters have an established design and personality.

The author, Himaruya Hidekaz, could have gone down a conventional path while writing the story of the manga, particulary during World War events, depicting some characters as the villains, and therefore, the others as the heroes who have to defeat them. But fortunately, he didn´t. Unlike some war movies and other media, where they try to portray some countries as the good guys who had to defeat the evil enemies, Hetalia is written as if it was only the rivalry of two groups, which give me the next point...

In Hetalia, no character tries to be portrayed as if it was the best or the worst country. Himaruya designs his characters based on both, good and bad stereotypes of the country. Everyone has their good qualities, as well as their own flaws. Personally, it´s hard to choose a favorite character, everyone is likeable and no one feels like a Mary Sue.

The country characters have no power over their bosses (presidents, kings, prime ministers, etc.). This is a way for Himaruya to justify some terrible events that occurred during History. The countries have to follow orders, or are influenced by the boss they have at the moment. Although sometimes it is show that countries can share opinions and discuss with their bosses. If they have something on their minds or want to do something, they have to consult it with their boss first, to get their approval. And sometimes they are even UNAWARE of their bosses choices!

Cons: 

Even if Himaruya tries his best to give every character a likeable personality based on the country stereotypes... he has also made some mistakes and inaccuracies. This caused hard consequences, like the government of Korea banning the anime and the manga, all because of the country representation, not to mention the rivalry between Korea and Japan. Also, some countries personality doesn´t seem to be accurate. For example, many people agree that, though Finland and Sweden characters are likeable, the author have switched their personalities.

You can find some historic inaccuracies in the manga and the anime, so don´t try to rely totally on Hetalia to pass your next history exam. For example, I heard many polish people complain about one episode, which takes place during Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The Poland character was depicted as weak, who gives up quickly and depends on Lithuania to win the battle. 

Giving all this information, Hetalia is not for everyone. Not all people are big fans of humor involving stereotypes or terrible events like war. Yeah, war is awful, but I think Hetalia partially mocks how useless war is. And there always will be the person who will say: “No! Not everyone in my country is like that! This does not represent me!” I´m mexican, and even if I don´t drink tequila or say common mexican phrases like “Wey, que pedo!” I can still laugh of my own country stereotypes (of course, those I don´t consider racist or denigrating). Talking about Mexico...

The lack of Latin and African countries, as well female characters. Yes, at first the Hetalia focus were the Axis and the Allies, the main countries who got involved in WW2, but then Himaruya started to introduce other nations, even the micronations! And yet we don´t have enough latinos or africans. In part I can understand why. For what friends who have visited Japan have told me, and for what I have seen on the internet, japanese people are still very unfamiliar with the latin culture. It´s a little sad, because, for example, my country has a very interesting story with other countries. And about the female characters, yes, we have Nyotalia, which is practically an AU where the characters are gender-bent, having the majority of them being girls, but in the normal Hetalia universe, we have more men than women. Himaruya had shared sketches of Portugal, Korea and Poland, who originally were going to be girls, but apparently he changed his mind and decided they were going to be guys. I don´t know how he chooses a character gender, but I think he should not be afraid adding more female characters, seeing some of the already existing are pretty badass. 

COUNTRYHUMANS: 

Pros: 

Apparently Countryhumans is free from copyright, so anyone can have their own depiction of their country, and can establish their own personalities and design... 

(Which is not very complicated, because the countryhumans designs consist in the country flag as their skin color, they usually don´t have hair and their eyes are completely white, so you just have to add the clothing).

The countries you don´t find in Hetalia can be found here! I love to see Mexico and all Latin America in this fandom, their personalities and their interactions between them and other countries.

The fandom from all the world can share more accurate historic events, as they have more knowledge of the history of their countries and what actually happen in those places.

Therefore, the personalities of the countries can be a little more accurate.

Countryhumans can be depicted as both, women or men. 

In conclusion, as you are free of copyright, if you are not happy with the representation of your country, you can design your own depiction and we all are content, right?

Cons: 

What can be a pro can also be a con. As Countryhumans has no what we can consider canon characters of all the OCs, we cannot decide which of the designs will be the most accurate or the most representative, as everyone has their own favorite depiction. And yes, there can be a lot of Mary Sues in the fandom. (There Mary Sues in the Hetalia fandom too, but those are created by the fans, not by Himaruya)

Oh no, here I come with the controversial issues... Remember what I said in Hetalia, that Himaruya tries to not to classify the countries as heroes or villains? Well, the Countryhumans has this problem... sometimes. For example, I have read fanfictions, and watched fanarts, in which Mexico is depicted as the poor victim of the evil U.S.A. who wants to control everyone, and also the mean Spain who slaved him for years. I am not saying U.S.A or Spain have never done something wrong, but as a Mexican I can tell that Mexico has also made mistakes in the past, and it´s not the poor victim some authors describe. 

Also, in Countryhumans, the way the authors justify the horrible events of the past, is separating the present country from their former one, and then we have: Nazi Germany and Soviet Rusia, who are completely different people from the Germany and Rusia of today. That´s not the problem, actually is a good way to justify the history of the country. The problem is how authors can represent this two polemic figures...

Therefore, Countryhumans is not for everyone either. There are still people who are very sensitive with the Nazism or the Soviet Union era, and watching this two depicted as “cute” or “cool”... can be creepy. Like I said before, in Hetalia at least they try to avoid political and social themes (the american dub and the dark Hetalia is another theme, the last one was created by the fandom itself), so Germany is never referred as a nazi, nor Russia is ever called Soviet, and both had to follow orders of their leaders orders, even if they didn´t want to, and the countries don´t have to represent the boss ideology.

In conclusion, both have good and bad qualities. Yes, both can have a toxic fandom, but they also have people who are interested in history and like to see how these countries can forget the past and live in harmony together. 

Hetalia satirizes history and mocks war and stereotypes, while the fandom and Countryhumans do the same, but also can explore the things Hetalia doesn´t, like other countries, dark history or other themes. 

In both cases, we can tell the World History is very complex, that is hard to be 100% accurate when you try to explain it with anthropomorphized countries. However, is more enjoyable to learn about other countries, their history and the culture through Hetalia and Countryhumans than a textbook. Even when you have watched both of these, reading a textbook is no longer boring. So, if you are an Hetalia fan or a Countryhuman fan, or both, enjoy your fandom and try to avoid the toxic part :)

[bethkerring]

10 Tips for Writing Characters with Depression

Depression isn’t exactly the easiest topic to write about, in fiction or otherwise.

I’ve struggled with writing about it personally, and I’ve experienced it, so I know it must be a hundred times harder for people who have never been through it. I’ve seen depression, as well as other forms of mental illness, pop up more and more in books, movies, TV shows, and other forms of popular media, and the quality of that representation is … extremely varied. Sometimes it’s done so beautifully it affects the way I view my own experiences, and sometimes it’s so bad that I worry for how many people it harmed.

I’ve also heard writers talk about how scared they are to write about depression, because they want to do the topic justice and aren’t sure how to present it accurately if they don’t have personal experience. I’m not an expert by any means, but frankly, I don’t think anyone is. Everyone’s experience with depression is different, but I hope that sharing some of the things I’ve learned from my experience and others’ can help writers create characters with realistic and properly represented mental illness.

That said, a quick disclaimer: these tips are, again, based on my personal experience and those of people I know. They are not universal, and not everyone agrees on everything. If you’re writing a story that features one or more characters with depression, please do your own research and listen to as many different experiences as you can.

Also, trigger warnings for, obviously, discussion of depression, as well as brief discussion of suicide.

Good? Good. Let’s go.

1. Depression is an illness, but that doesn’t mean it’s just like having the flu. I’ve heard people compare mental illness to physical illness to make the point that we don’t take mental illness seriously, treatment is harder to get, we blame people for mental illness where we don’t with physical illness, etc. And these are all perfectly valid points. But it’s also important to recognize that the metaphor does, at some point, break down. Mental illness is, indeed, an illness, but the way people experience it and the way it affects their lives is often very different from, say, catching a cold. It’s often a long-term condition, for one, and we know a lot less about the mind than the body. There are some similarities, and mental illness should be taken just as seriously as physical, but mental illness also comes with some unique factors that often make it more difficult to treat.

2. There are countless treatment options, and there is no one universal “cure.” If someone discovers that they have depression, the solution isn’t as simple as “get therapy” or “get medication.” Those are two possible treatment options, but the treatment will depend on the severity of the depression, how long it’s lasted, the individual’s life situation, and, most importantly, what the individual prefers. Some people don’t want to go on medication but like the idea of therapy. Some people can’t find/afford therapy and want to try medication instead. Some people do both. Some people seek other treatment options or decide to give it time before deciding, especially if the depression is clearly related to a life situation. Everyone is different, and treatment options are exactly that: treatment, not cures. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another, and even if a treatment “works,” that doesn’t mean the depression goes away forever.

3. Therapy can be expensive and hard to get - and finding the right therapist is even harder. I’ve only had one experience of searching for a therapist as an adult, and let me tell you, the process itself ended up actually contributing to my depression. Though every country is different in terms of access to good therapy (counseling, especially), my country—America—has a long way to go. First you have to find a good counselor in your area, then you have to see if your insurance (if you have insurance) will cover treatment with that particular counselor, then you have to see if you can afford what the out-of-pocket cost will be, then you have to make an appointment that works with their hours and your schedule (some therapists don’t work weekends or evenings), then you actually go to the therapist and hope that they are a good match. If you’re very lucky, this is the end of the process.

If you’re like many, though, you realize the counselor isn’t a good fit, and the process begins all over again. All while you’re suffering through the mental illness you need treatment for.

It should also be recognized that therapists aren’t perfect: they’re human beings with differing personalities and approaches to treatment, and finding the right therapist is just as important as actually, well, finding a therapist. Because of the position they’re in and how much influence they have on someone’s life, the wrong therapist can potentially make someone’s mental illness worse, or create problems that weren’t there already. Even if a person finds the right therapist, the benefits of that therapy often don’t show themselves immediately, and that good therapist can still make mistakes (saying the wrong thing, making false assumptions, bringing in their personal biases, etc.). Basically, don’t have your character enter therapy and magically end up cured. Therapy can be fantastically helpful and important for someone with depression, but it’s not quick, it’s not always easy, and it’s not perfect.

4. Medication is not a miracle cure. I hope that most people reading already know this, but just in case, it’s worth repeating. Many people with depression have found medication helpful, but there is no “magic pill” to “cure” depression that works for everyone. There are many, many different types of medication, which work in a variety of different ways. Many of them can take weeks to have a noticeable affect, and an individual might need to try several medications—and dosages—before they find what works for them.

Side effects are also very common and can sometimes outweigh the benefits. Even if the side effects aren’t bad enough to stop the medication, they might still be annoying, so be sure to look up the side effects of any medication your character might be taking. Finally, not everyone benefits from or wants to take medication: unmedicated depression is not necessarily untreated depression.

5. Lifestyle changes are also not a miracle cure - but that doesn’t mean they don’t help. I want to be very clear here: telling someone with depression to “just go for a walk” is, frankly, disrespectful toward their suffering. But so is suggesting that they should “just get therapy” or “just get medication.” Treating depression is never simple, and though going for a walk isn’t going to cure longtime depression, exercise and sunlight, among other lifestyle changes, can make a difference to someone suffering from it. Depending on the reason for and the type of depression, someone might find it very helpful to get more sunlight, to take up exercise, to eat healthier, or to spend more time socializing. Conversely, if someone spends all day secluded in their room with blackout curtains and junk food, their depression is unlikely to get better, and may, in fact, get worse. Depression and lifestyle can even become a vicious cycle, where someone feels unsociable because they’re depressed, so they don’t go out, which makes them more depressed. The same goes with not feeling up to exercising because of depression, so lack of exercise ends up contributing to the depression, and eating junk food for comfort, and that junk food making the depression worse. Again, lifestyle may not be a miracle cure (or the sole cause), but consider how your character’s lifestyle may interact with, contribute to, or help their depression.

6. Depression can be caused by a wide range of things, and often more than one. I often hear depression described, almost exclusively, as a “chemical imbalance.” And it’s true that a chemical imbalance can cause depression and, technically speaking, any form of emotion is caused by chemicals in the brain and body. But I don’t believe it’s that simple. Many studies have linked depression to experiences and trauma in both childhood and adulthood. This doesn’t mean that chemicals don’t play a part, or that these experiences don’t affect brain chemistry (they absolutely do), but there is no single cause for depression, and often it is result of a combination of genes, environment, and other factors. Keep that in mind when creating your characters and their backstories. Does your character have a family history of depression? Does this make their family more or less supportive? Has your character dealt with life experiences that contributed to their depression? Is your character dealing with a difficult situation during the story that causes a depressive episode or makes it worse? You don’t have to know the exact balance of nature and nurture—no one does in real life—but consider these factors and remember that depression and its causes are much more complex than you might think.

7. Depression is more than a single episode. That’s not to say someone can’t have just one long (or short) depressive episode, which is then treated and disappears forever, or goes away on its own. That’s certainly possible, but it’s not the norm. Many people with depression experience it as “episodes,” which can be short or long. Those episodes might come about due to a specific event or apparently randomly, and they might end due to treatment or just disappear without a clear cause.

That’s not to say that treatment can’t help prevent future episodes, or make them less severe. But many people with depression don’t expect that their depression will ever completely go away. It might, but for many people, depression is something to treat and to cope with. It may go away for years and then suddenly come back. It may just hit occasionally and, hopefully, less severely as better treatment or coping resources are available. But in my experience, it’s rare that your depression is “cured” just because you feel better. That particular episode has ended, but someone who has proven to be “prone” to depressive episodes is likely to have them again in the future.

8. Stigma toward depression is still alive and well. I’ve referenced this already, but it’s worth repeating: though stigma toward depression (and other mental illness) is getting better, it definitely still exists. People are still accused of “faking it” or “being dramatic” if they claim to have a mental illness, and mental illness is still often brushed aside as not necessarily serious. Plus, the simple fact is that society is much more accommodating and understanding toward physical illness than mental illness: it’s considered more acceptable to ask for a day off of work for a stomach bug than a bad depressive episode, even if they might be similarly debilitating. This differs significantly depending on where your story is taking place, of course, but assuming you’re writing about a real, modern society, many don’t take mental illness as seriously as they should. But this is not universal, and if you’re writing about a society you don’t belong to, please do your research regarding how people in that society react to someone suffering from depression—and remember that your character's family and friends might have personal prejudices that their society doesn’t share.

9. Suicide is a real and important issue - but please be careful writing it. It’s very important to have good representation for people who suffer suicidal feelings. This is a serious phenomenon and people dealing with it should have characters they can empathize with. However, this should not be done lightly, and if you’re going to deal with it in your story, please do your research ahead of time, because bad representation can do a lot more harm than none at all. There are dozens of ways suicide can be written badly, but I especially want to warn against romanticizing suicide and its effects on survivors. Many people who deal with suicidal feelings think that, if they kill themselves, the people who hurt them will finally see the pain they caused and either get their “just desserts” or become better people. Though this feeling is common, this is very dangerous to present as a reality—not only because it (unintentionally) might help convince someone suffering from suicidal feelings that suicide will accomplish their goal, but also because it’s almost always false. Suicide rarely leads survivors to suddenly regret all any harmful actions—even if it does, it often doesn’t happen to the people who caused genuine harm. Usually, the people who wallow in guilt are the people who genuinely cared for the person and did their best to help them, and they will be stuck with that guilt for the rest of their lives—sometimes leading that survivor of suicide to attempt suicide themself. Most often, suicide leaves the survivors confused, angry, grieving, and understanding even less than they did when the person was alive—and in the rare case that they do understand the harm they caused, and regret it, there is still nothing to be done. The person is dead and the survivors live on in guilt. Nothing is solved. Nothing is fixed. There is just more pain. So please, be careful when writing suicidal feelings, attempted or completed suicides, or the reactions and survivors—do your research, read real people’s stories, and consider the effect your writing will have on those reading it.

10. Yes, you can live a full and happy life and still deal with depression. This might sound like some cheesy motivational post, but it’s completely true and very important, both for people suffering from depression and people who write characters who suffer from depression. Just because your character has depression does not mean that they will live a life of constant misery—and your character’s depression does not have to be cured for them to have a happy ending. A “happy ending” for someone with depression might be finding a form of treatment that helps, or coming to understand that things will get better, or learning to ask for help from those that love them. Even learning that they aren’t broken because of their depression can be a valuable and life-changing lesson. Be realistic when thinking about where your character ends up, but also keep in mind that many, many people live with depression and, with time and support, can find a treatment plan and coping resources that allow them to enjoy life and be happy.

Original post on my website.

[neriad13]

Best of the Best - Media Consumed 2018

Books - Fiction

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

I devoured the entire series in a series of months this year and what I’m about to say holds true for all of them (probably more than for the latter two than the first)...but I have a particular soft spot for the plot twists and humor of the beginning. So, it’s my choice for the year, though it is representing the series as a whole.

This is the series that showed me what inclusive fantasy can be like. It’s a story predominantly about straight white dudes written by a straight white dude (a comfort zone I am struggling to break out of) and yet, it is one that purposefully skirts the tropes of the genre and plays with them in such a way that it makes the world feel welcoming to a reader who is neither straight nor male. There’s lesbian pirates, multiple queer characters, copious well-written women and non-white characters as major players in the narrative. This was a book that gave me hope and help as I struggled to bust out of my old patterns of thinking and writing. And yet, it was familiar enough that it was enough of a comfort zone to retreat to in times when I needed to seek comfort in fiction.

And it’s so much good fun. Half a year later and I’m still cracking up at “Nice bird, asshole.”

Books - Nonfiction

Dictator Style - Peter York

This book was weirdly heart-wrenching. There’s something so melancholy and strange about surveying the living spaces of these paragons of human misery and trying to figure out what they were thinking through medium of their wallpaper choices. That, and the knowledge that even the seemingly all powerful are far more tacky and slipshod than commonly believed, stuck with me.

Fic

Batya - Valya

I didn’t read a whole heck of a lot of fic this year and only counted those that were above a 30k word count. There were plenty of short fics that I loved, but alas, I did not write them down. Goals for next year!

So, Batya, BioShock fic - AU in which Ryan discovers Jack far earlier than intended and decides to adopt him as his son. Once this fic gets going, it’s intense. And sad. And beautiful, all of which apply heavily to the relationship between Jack and Kyle. The final scene between them is pure poetry and had me thinking of them dancing as Rapture fell apart around them for days afterward.

Film

I saw so many hecking good movies this year. I’m just barely able to pare it down to a top three.

Black Panther - Ryan Coogler

This movie was exhilarating. The design, the energy, the acting, the humor, the primal drama of two types of activism duking it out in the bowels of the earth...I walked out of the theater in a daze, hardly believing that I’d seen what I had.

When Marnie Was There - Hiromasa Yonebayashi

This movie contains the most accurate portrayal of social anxiety I have ever seen in fiction, period. It hit especially close to home for me, as this year was the one in which I faced and struggled with my own lifelong anxiety. I watched it wondering how on earth filmmakers half a world away got the details of my own childhood down so precisely on film. When the credits hit and “Fine On the Outside” played, I bawled at my computer screen.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

This movie was a staggering technological accomplishment. It pushed the boundaries of animation and filmmaking in ways I have flat-out never seen before. It was joyful, it was dramatic, it was tragic, it was gorgeous. It was a celebration of everything animation is capable of. And the fact that a brown kid is at the center of it?

Stunning.

Comics - Webcomics

Alethia - Kristina Stipetic

This is beautiful world in which the characters are forced to make terrible choices, as the main character struggles to find the meaning in such things.

Also, it’s all lesbian robots. The artist drew the comic specifically because she wanted more women in fiction that she could relate to. It’s a fascinating, meditative piece of work.

Comics - Fiction

Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo

This manga is a masterpiece of destruction and resurgence. The art is stunning, the characters are charming and the action is absolutely unbeatable.

But my favorite section was the one which focuses on Chiyoko - an unapologetically masculine woman with an arsenal of heavy weapons - while she’s on desperate rescue mission in hostile territory. My eyes were glued to the page as she blew away her foes and struggled against them in turn, her plight given the gravity and intensity that is so rarely bestowed on female action heroes.

For that alone - best fiction comic of the year.

Comics - Nonfiction

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me - Ellen Forney

I read so many fantastic comic memoirs this year. It was difficult to choose from among them - almost all of them were highlighted as among my favorites of the year. But there’s something about a seasoned artist drawing and talking about her own battles with mental illness after a long (and ongoing) war that stood out to me.

It’s a tale of seemingly endless medication adjustment, therapy and the breaking down of personal stigmas surrounding mental illness and the drugs used to treat it. Though I don’t share the artist’s diagnosis, it was a book that gave me confidence in choices about the treatment of my own mental illness.

Shows

A Series of Unfortunate Events S2 - Barry Sonnenfeld, Bo Welch, Mark Palansky, Allan Arkush, Loni Peristere, Liza Johnson, Jonathan Teplitzky

What can I say about something that is perfect? Every joke hits. Every bit of wordplay makes me burst out laughing. The absurdity and surreality of the situations are a sight to behold. The acting is phenomenal. The writing improves upon the books in every possible way. And in all of this, not an inch of the story’s darkness is ever given up.

Games

This was the year I played the first Fallout (the ending destroyed me), That Dragon, Cancer (very much hit home), 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (can you make a historical game that both teaches, entertains and reveals the human cost of a complex conflict? Yes. Yes, you can.) Pillars of Eternity (A well-written Atheist in my video game? It’s more likely than you think.) and Tales From the Borderlands (the humor! The art! The voice cast! The rock-solid writing!). All of them were top contenders and yet...there was really only one choice for me.

Papo and Yo - Vander Caballero

This is a game about the relationship between a boy and his alcoholic father. It is heavily based on the lead developer’s own experiences. It’s a fraught relationship - torn between the sober moments when the hero’s father loves him, protects him, takes care of him, plays with him - and the moments when drinking turns him into a monster of rage.

The hero sets out to find a cure for his father’s addiction and after great trial discovers…

*spoilers, though the answer is probably pretty obvious, though no less painful for its obviousness*

...that no such cure exists and that the only thing he can do is let him go.

I sobbed uncontrollably at the ending of this game and sniffled long after. The message stuck with me months after I’d played it.

All of the hurt, confusion, anger and grief of letting go of my own toxic person - there it had been, on the screen right in front of me. This game helped me come to peace with that decision in my own life and for that, I am astounded and humbled by the simple artistry of this game. If you have your own toxic person in your life - be the problem alcohol, religious fundamentalism, intolerance or any other form of abuse - play this game and know that it’s okay to leave them behind. 

[pathfindersemail]

Goodbye “Andromeda”

The following is a letter I wrote shortly after the Montreal Comic Con 2017 Bioware Panel. I sat on it for a while, but with recent news regarding the fate of Mass Effect: Andromeda, I felt it was pertinent to share this letter.

To the global family who created Mass Effect Andromeda,

I still remember my first ever experience playing a video game. It was a hot December in 1997, and I was still living in Manila, Philippines. We had a small boxy TV with a (maybe) 10-inch screen. That screen gave a pixelated display of my haphazard attempts at killing monsters with the business end of my rocket launcher. Doom was released years prior on the SNES, but it was a completely new thing for me. Me, a (at the time) 5-year old girl, mercilessly conquering over demons, monsters, and other nightmarish things. Macabre as it was, it was the beginnings of my thirst for adventure and of my need to be the hero of my own story.

Since then, I have played many games. I have been an assassin, a brooding teenage rebel trying to save the world, a ninja, a samurai, a street fighter, a car thief, a weird dude with a bandana caught in a plot too complex for my childish mind (not naming names, Metal Gear), a widower trapped in his own psychological nightmare, a well-endowed archeologist, an extremely taciturn physicist, a sith lord, a keyblade master saving worlds... I have been all these lives, personas, and characters. Yet in those myriad experiences, I felt something (for the lack of a better term) missing. 

I have since passed the years never really being able to point a finger at it. The sense of a void always came stumbling back after I had finished a game. I tasted power, fulfillment, and the close of a journey only to have it dissipate as a story that never really was mine. 

Fast forward years later to the fortuitous year of 2016, when Bioware offered its newest Game of the Year title for a generous discount. It was Dragon Age Inquisition. By then I was twenty-four years old, at the cusp of graduating with a Masters, and suffering from the nagging malaise of a rather bleak election year in the United States. I needed an escape, and seeing as how video games had so steadfastly provided that escape, I took the bait and played what would become the most important game in my life.

This letter is supposed to be about your 2017 title, Mass Effect: Andromeda, so I’ll keep this part brief. 

Inquisition was the first game where I was able to make someone who looked like me. Me: a stocky, 5′3 Filipino Chinese Japanese girl with unruly black hair, dull brown eyes, and a face rounder than a baby. Though many other titles before have offered character creators, they either failed to look “realistic” or ended up looking garishly alien. Inquisition’s robust CC made it possible for me to create a protagonist who could not only reflect a woman who resembled me (and people who shared my identity) onto an HD screen. She could also reflect choices, agency, and strength that are rarely afforded to what scant representation Southeast Asians have. I watched my inquisitor grow from reluctant, cloistered heroine to a capable leader who acted with both compassion and courage.

By the time my Inquisitor disbanded the inquisition and joined what would be the lost annals of Thedosian heroes, I inevitably returned to the real word. I was expecting that same, familiar void I felt whenever I finished a game. Yet it didn’t happened. Instead, I fell. I fell so hard for the universe. I couldn’t stop thinking about my characters’ companions, the friendships she made, the relationships she forged, and the love she has earned. I wrote, for one of my Master’s seminars, several papers (which my professors read with glee, might I add) about the resonances of Dragon Age’s in-universe permutations of tragedy and systemic oppression. I wrote about the importance of being able to interact and decide the conclusion of a narrative; to be able to weave a different kind of tale through games where the player could very much inform the tone and setting of a story. 

I raved about the game; I joined online communities to keep raving about it; and I produced what content I could to share with these fellow fans from all over the world. I didn’t just play a persona or a character; I played someone who represented what I felt was good about who I was; who acted with a conscientious awareness of what conquering and ruling meant for someone of a previously colonized peoples. It was liberating.

Shortly after my plunge into Inquisition’s fan community, a friend recommended that I try Mass Effect. Since I have already waxed poetic about DAI, I will also keep this very brief. I played all three games shortly after I graduated from my Masters in the winter of 2016. Within a span of a week, I cried, melted, died, reanimated, and cried again. Shepard’s story was complete and whole, and I felt that her accomplishments amplified what i felt about my Inquisition protagonist (especially since the demographic “Asian” had more meaning in this game than it did in a fantasy universe). As you might expect, I waited impatiently and obsessively for Mass Effect: Andromeda, during which time I wondered how on Earth could I have survived the wait had I been a fan all along.

There are many things I could say about my experience playing Andromeda, but I feel I should share with you the most important one.

Thank you.

Thank you for letting me create a beautiful, Filipina hero, who would pave the way for a new galaxy. Thank you for being the game developer who - after nearly 20 years of gaming experience - let me see myself reflected fully, accurately, and beautifully at the forefront of a compelling and epic story. Unlike the previous Bioware games I mentioned, my Ryder (her name is Sarianna :)) was allowed to be young, foolish, and happy. She didn’t constantly bear the yoke of border disputes and religious office as my Inquisitor did. Like Shepard, she was allowed moments of respite and impulsiveness - perhaps even more so than the older protagonist with whom the original trilogy graced us. As a woman who barely saw myself and my identity represented in media, I had a protagonist I could admire, respect, and contribute to the world (no matter how unnoticed she will be in future years).

One of my favorite moments in the game was the penultimate and high stakes scene of the Ryder twin (a Filipino version of Scott) fighting his way with just a pathetic pistol in hand to save his sister. Tears were brimming in my eyes when SAM offered a heartfelt apology at the sacrifice they were forced to make. “I’m sorry Scott,” he said. 

And the loving brother could only say, “I am too, SAM” before hitting that button with resolve.

It was a profound and poignant moment about family; about heroes of color who would do anything for each other; and about the fear of losing someone important to you. The fact that characters who represented Filipinos were able to call the shots, exercise agency, and bear the responsibility of leadership gave me so much pride. 

My other favorite moment was a romance scene: the drinks Ryder shared with Reyes Vidal on rooftop. It was an emotionally intense moment where two people were able to share in their vulnerability. Do you know how important it is for Latinx players to be able to see a bisexual Latino express the need for recognition, affection, and friendship? The scene broke my heart into a million pieces, because frailty can be a powerful thing and yet it is so often denied to Latino men, whom the media has wronged with constant portrayals of stereotypes of machismo and violence. Reyes was a phenomenal character, and I have to thank your writer Courtney Woods by name for making him possible. 

I also cried when the game ended, because I soon returned to that familiar yet now alienating reality where movies, music, and (for the most part) video games didn’t represent anyone with whom I identified. I cried, because my friends and I realized that virtually no one else is letting you wear your race, gender, and sexuality with pride and joy. I cried, because I realized that video games weren’t only cathartic works of fiction wherein I can project my fantasies. They were also fulfillments of personhood. It was you, Bioware, family who made that possible.

Now it goes without saying that nobody and nothing is perfect, and yet the rather disproportionate amount of harsh criticism and backlash the game received was... upsetting to say the least. For one, I felt like society as a whole was rejecting not only the finished product of the game but the potentialities and possibilities latent in such a product. I can’t speak of the technological feats Andromeda was able to accomplish (JUMP JETS ARE LEGENDARY YOU SHOULD BE PROUD!), but I can speak for the fact that Bioware is one of the few developers who proudly held up its fans as the driving force and motivation of their success. Andromeda is a beautiful game, and its predecessors were all masterpieces not only for their technical and artistic achievements but for their social and cultural significance. 

When my friend and I left the Bioware panel in the Montreal 2017 comic con, we immediately found our way to a bar in rue Sainte Catherine, where we reveled in the excitement of having seen the people responsible for our joy and passion. Over drinks, I lamented the wasted opportunity of not thanking you personally, so I do it now under the cover anonymity. I do it with words, because I like to think I am better at writing than I am speaking. I do it so I can express to you the indelible mark you left on my life. You gave me a hero who looked like me, and in turn I bonded with others from all over the world who felt that same happiness and gratitude. Yet we also spoke of our hopes: we hoped that people will take Bioware’s direction to further improve representation; to include people of color, people from the LGBT community, and other identities in the creative process. In the field of literary criticism, we often judge a work based on its ability to stage and engage with different audiences across geographic and temporal distances. The Mass Effect franchise was one such formidable work.

Suddenly those twenty years of gaming beforehand folded into a meaningless blur. None of them could ever fill the void of never seeing myself reflected in media. And, as sad it is to say with the recent news of Andromeda’s definitive end, I am not likely to encounter another. 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

L------ (aka @pathfindersemail)

[dccomicsnews]

Welcome to the latest edition of DCN Cosplay Spotlight, where we talk to people in the wonderful world of cosplay.  This month we had the pleasure of talking with a member of the DC Cosplayers East and the Philadelphia Avengers, the Dark Knight of PA!

Check out our interview below:

DC COMICS NEWS: Batman is arguably one of the most popular, well-known superheroes to ever exist.  What is it about this character, for you, in particular that made you want to create a cosplay?

DARK KNIGHT OF PA: Batman has always been a part of my life. The first comics I remember seeing when I was a child were Batman comics. The 60’s Batman series and the old Filmation Batman (and other DC characters) were also on TV every day. I was drawn to the character for many reasons; the costume, the absence of superpowers, the gadgets, the Batmobile, etc.

DCN: With Batman being such an iconic character to so many people, do you find there to be a lot of pressure to portray the Dark Knight in a certain way?

DK: I don’t really worry about that. I think everyone has their own vision of what Batman should be. I just show my vision. I have several variations of the Batsuit, and none of them are 100% comics or movie accurate, and that is intentional. Personally, I always prefer the oval emblem over the plain bat on the chest. I also prefer an all black or gray and black suit. Even though the first version of Batman I ever saw was gray and blue, the blue never made sense to me. Have you ever seen a blue bat?

DCN: How long have you been cosplaying?  What was your first ever project?

DK: I was cosplaying before cosplay was a word! My first custom Batsuit was back when I was about 5 years old… many decades ago. My grandfather put it together for me. Back then, Halloween costumes were the old Ben Cooper things. A plastic face mask with a rubber string, and basically a plastic poncho that had an image of the character on it. My grandfather took an old Ideal Batman “helmet”, which was a hard plastic version of the bat cowl that covered my whole head. He painted it black, because even at 5 years old, I insisted that blue had no place on a Batsuit. He made a black bat cape for me by cutting scallops in a large black sheet. He modified black rubber boots to look the Batman boots, and added scallops to black leather cowboy gloves. The bodysuit was dark gray flannel pajamas with an oval bat emblem attached (made from cardboard and glued on). He also got black trunks for me, and somehow made a yellow utility belt from a leather belt and pouches scavenged from somewhere. I wish I still had pictures, but the Polaroids were lost many years ago. Years later, in 1989, I bought all the Morris pieces licensed for the Batman movie, and started customizing. So, I have been constantly modifying Batsuits since 1989 and wearing them for parties, cons, and other events.

DCN: What has been your favorite cosplay project so far?

DK: Costume wise, probably my Batman Inc suits. I really loved that costume in the comics and I wish they kept using it. But, the “New 52” ruined that (among other things). Group project wise, working with DC Cosplayers East to do a Justice League International group for a con and meeting the creators of JLI. We also did a fun photo shoot and got to recreate the “one punch” scene. Most of my favorite pictures are recreations of comic book panels.

DCN: How long did it take you to create this cosplay?

DK: It’s a constant work in progress. Every Batsuit I wear is the result of everything I’ve learned since 1989. I am currently working on some modifications to the newest suit that will probably take a month or two. As soon as that is done, I’ll probably come up with other things I want to change and the process will continue.

DCN: What is it about cosplay that calls to you?

DK: I love bringing comics to life. I remember being in first grade and the teacher asked us what we want to be when we grow up. My answer was “Batman”. Now, being around other people wearing superhero costumes is like living a childhood dream and at the same time bringing a smile to others, especially the children who believe they really are meeting Batman.

DCN: Do you have a favorite memory or story while cosplaying?

DK: I can’t pick just one. So many people (both children and adults) have been so excited to get a picture with me, talk to me, or just shake my hand. Seeing the joy in their faces makes all the time and money spent on Batsuits well worth it. I frequently do events at Ontario Street Comics in Philadelphia (the best comic shop in the world, and the comic shop that a scene from ‘Unbreakable’ was filmed in) and there are several families that show up every time I am there. I can look back at pictures from the past few years and see the kids growing up. When I talk to these people each time I see them, they make me feel like I am part of their family.

DCN: You were recently nominated as the “Favorite Philly Celebrity” in an “A-List” competition.  Tell us a little about this experience, how it came about, and what it has meant to you.

DK: That’s a bit of a surprise. It started with Ontario Street Comics, which has been voted the #1 Comic Shop on the list for the past 5 years. I was nominated late in the competition. I think voting began on October 16th and I was nominated a month later. I really didn’t expect to get many votes, but within a week, I was in the lead! Results are hidden now, so I have no idea who will win. I don’t expect to win, I don’t consider myself a celebrity, but it was nice to see so much support from so many people in such a short time. I really appreciate it, and it has encouraged me to get out and do more events.

DCN: Outside of cosplay do you have any other interest/hobbies?

DK: JUSTICE! And also comics, movies, pretty much all things geeky.

DCN: How do your friends and family feel about you cosplaying?  Are they supportive?

DK: Most are supportive, even if they don’t understand it. My youngest daughter has been Batgirl at many parties and conventions with me. She really does a much better job than I do. She is amazing with kids, and always puts a smile on their faces. She’s a natural!

DCN: Do you have a pet peeve when it comes to cosplay?

DK:  1.) I’ve only seen this once or twice, but it really burns me up. If you are in cosplay, and a child wants a picture with you, say YES! I don’t care what else is going on, what panel or photo shoot you are on the way to, take a moment and give that child their wish. You are representing a hero, act like one. Yes, I know this can lead to another child and another pic, and slow you down more, but it’s worth it.

2.) Nitpickers – if someone has the courage to get out in public in a home made, or store bought costume, don’t bring them down. Not everyone has the time, patience, skill, or money to make a “perfect” cosplay. Some people are just starting out and don’t have the experience… encourage them, don’t put them down.

DCN: Do you have any cosplays you will never do? And if so, why?

DK: Never say never, but I doubt I will ever do a cosplay that includes guns. I know there are many characters where guns are a part of the character (Punisher, Deadpool, Deadshot, etc) and I respect those characters and the cosplayers that choose them as a character, but it’s just not for me.

DCN: Why do you think cosplay has become so popular in the last few years?

DK: I think all the comic movies and TV shows that have been so popular for the past several years have called attention to the characters. Social media, and the internet in general have given people easy access to pictures of people cosplaying these characters, online tutorials on how to create cosplays, and access to buy costumes year round. There was a time before the internet when you could only find costumes and supplies in September and October, unless you lived near a costume/theatrical supply store. Before social media, there were message boards where people could exchange ideas and buy/sell/trade costume items. This made things easier, but you still had to know what you were looking for to find the boards, cosplay wasn’t a term at that time.

DCN: Which DC character, if any, may we see next from you?

DK: Flashpoint Batman (without guns)? Yellow or Green Lantern Batman? Or maybe Green Arrow… since he is the CW’s Batman. 🙂 I also keep kicking around a couple Marvel characters (Moon Knight and Captain America) so maybe somewhere down the line I will do those, but they just don’t call to me like the bat does.

I’d like to give a special thanks to the Dark Knight of PA for taking the time to talk with us.  I’d also like to thank Ontario Street Comics for helping make this interview happen.

Be sure to check out Dark Knight of PA’s Facebook page as well as Ontario Street Comics!

DCN Cosplay Spotlight: Dark Knight of PA Welcome to the latest edition of DCN Cosplay Spotlight, where we talk to people in the wonderful world of cosplay. 

[chlostertalks]

On Jemele Hill

During Tropical Storm Irma and my first week at Turner, a former colleague of mine came under fire for tweets.

The Ringer’s piece was accurate.

Though I left ESPN a little over a month ago, I have a lot of solid connections and met great people. Despite never having a personal conversation with Jemele Hill, she and Michael Smith spoke to the interns at the Intern Symposium in late June. They kept it real, much like Hill did in the Ringer piece. They talked about how they have fans and those that hate-watch SC6, the pressure of having the SportsCenter brand on your show, politics and sports touching like food groups on a plate, addressing Twitter trolls, and being confident in being yourself on air.

Yours truly (third row, 6th from left) and ESPN Summer 2017 interns with Michael Smith (front, center, blue shirt) and Jemele Hill (second row, center, yellow shirt). ESPN. 

I do believe a lot of the criticism of Michael and Jemele comes from the critics’ feeling that they are too black for SportsCenter.

It wasn’t always cool for Stuart Scott to say “Boo-Yah” on air, but his ability to cross over while being himself helped make him a legend. If you ever visit DC-2, “Boo-Yah” is the phrase that stands out the most on SportsCenter’s wall of famous anchor phrases. Speaking of, Robin Roberts has a couple phrases on that wall, too. It’s hard nowadays to find old articles documenting the struggles she undoubtedly faced as a black woman anchoring SportsCenter.

It was cool when Chris Berman made references to rock songs. It’s cool if SVP ties in pop culture. But Michael and Jemele tying in spades and Mobb Deep? It leaves audiences that don’t get it well…shook. 

The most vocal viewers–the critics–fear what they do not relate to. 

And of all the black SportsCenter anchors–including Michael Eaves, Elle Duncan, Cari Champion, Sage Steele, and Jay Harris–Michael and Jemele make the most references to black culture. The intro has a hip hop beat. A pair of Jordans and Prince are in the background. They have a segment from His and Hers called Doin’ Too Much, the sports version of The Breakfast Club’s Donkey of the Day and the Tom Joyner Morning Show’s Bama of the Week (Week! Week! Week!). They appeal to a young audience interested in sports, music, movies, and culture, and how all that intersects.

There isn’t nearly as much criticism with Bleacher Report, Complex, or the NBA making references for the culture as there is with ESPN having not one, but TWO black anchors making the blackest references on a sports network.

Thus, these vocal viewers have called for The Six’s cancellation since it hit TV after the Super Bowl. It was cool to have Phife on the show when it was His and Hers. But now they’re apparently messing with tradition on a 6pm block that has the hardship of old highlights and waiting for the primetime action. A tradition that Twitter and other social platforms have severely maimed more than two hosts could ever do.

Much of ESPN’s audience is traditional, mid-American, older white men. Of course it’s going to clash with younger minorities who broke the mold by simply being themselves. “We just want highlights” isn’t the only issue. If you look at the business of television, “just highlights” isn’t making money. Again, I can find a highlight in a tweet. Authenticity makes money. Original content makes money. Storytelling with personality makes money. Drawing in a young audience that likes to feel heard and represented makes money. It’s why social media is referenced on every show of every major network. It’s why there is marketing geared toward millennials–we may be broke, but we’re cool, and we heavily influence the market because social media. Like a Prince song, it’s a sign o’ the times.

There is always going to be pushback when something new breaks tradition, but call it what it is. A lot of the criticism is that Michael and Jemele are too black for SportsCenter. Call the spade a spade.

And because of that, critics have waited for one of them to create controversy so they can be fired.

Enter Jemele’s tweets.

It’s also no secret that plenty of figures have been vocal against a leader who ironically tweets his own views on the daily. Even magazines like the Economist featured the President yelling through a Klan hat after the Charlottesville terror attack.

But what sparks the most uproar is a string of tweets from an unapologetically black sports anchor breaking the mold of ESPN’s Crown Jewel. Not TIME. Not Ms. Texas. Jemele Hill.

The outpouring of support from ESPN colleagues of hers does not surprise me. Michael Smith, Michael Eaves, and Elle Duncan attempting to not do the show without her is what I expected, especially from Michael Smith. The black employees at ESPN look out for each other. Eaves, Duncan, and Jay Harris were friendly faces and checked in on me every now and then. Adrienne Lawrence and Treavor Scales taught me about life on-air. I shadowed people like Terrika Foster-Brasby, Galen Gordon, and Shadeed Sharpe. And, despite already having a friend at ESPN in Jarren Gary (🙌🏽), I made quite a few friends, including graphic designer Tiffany Middleton, Undefeated writer Maya Jones, ESPN International’s Kadidjha Traore, and Eva Delacruz from creative services. It made my few months in the middle of nowhere in Connecticut a lot more fun, and put me at ease.

Black talent at ESPN also know that only so many get to be on television at the network, and it’s hard replacing someone of the same color as you and feeling the guilt that there can be only so many minorities on television. And replacing someone like Jemele would not only be painful and awkward, and not only would the chemistry have oodles of tension, but there would also be backlash as bad as the Fantasy Football Marathon “Player Auction” and the removal of Robert Lee as an announcer for a UVA game.

Moreover, the network risks feeding into a political subject. The very thing critics don’t want ESPN to be is politically involved, but the very thing critics want ESPN to do is fire Jemele Hill for not sticking to sports. What they don’t realize is that firing Hill would be a politically motivated fire, creating a contradiction.

I see ESPN riding this wave out and keeping Hill on staff, unless another controversy occurs. Corporate talked to her, hence her statement. To fire her days later as a result of being uncomfortable with negative press is like giving a kid at school an expulsion after he served his suspension (which I have seen before, and it did not go over well).

All they can do is wait. It will pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass.

[jrgarcia]

What’s the Gambler 500? It’s a Road Trip Rally

“It’s not a race, it’s a challenge.” A quote taken from 1976 film the Gumball Rally. Let me set the record straight that the Gambler 500 is NOT, I repeat, not a race or a timed event. This is a navigation rally designed to show you the Oregon landscape while having road trip fun in a wacky car with friends. The gamble comes from showing up to the start line in whatever, road legal, vehicle you can piece together that can survive 500 miles over a two day event. The Gambler 500 is Wacky Racers meets Family Vacation at the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mons. A motoring event unlike anything you’ve seen.

Team Rabid Beaver aka Red Beaver

How I ended up in Portland, Oregon on the eve of the Gambler 500 is a story that took a year in the making. It all started when I randomly came across a Facebook video clip of last year’s Gambler 500. It showed a bunch of wild cars and trucks being taken off road with big smiles all around. It looked fun. I shared it saying I would add it to my bucket list. One friend agreed, and meant it. Jeremy Mahovlich, a friend, fellow auto writer, mini truck aficionado, and general car nut from Vancouver, Canada. He was actually one of the first people I asked for advice on how to get into the automotive media racket in 2014.

At the start of 2017 he tagged me on another Gambler video asking if we should actually do this rally. I said yes, but in the same way friends agree that they should open a bar together. Sincere but with no real plan to actually go through with it. Wishful thinking. I didn’t think I would actually be at this event until he showed me the photos of the car he and Ron Kertesz, Rabid Beaver Co-driver, had bought at the auction. Soon as I saw the car in Jeremy’s driveway I started looking for flights.

The Red Beaver is a 2002 Ford Focus ZX3 hatchback with a 5-speed manual and that Jeremy picked up for $600 bucks. After a mild tune up of new spark plugs, fluids, and an air filter the car was given spacers to add ground clearance. The wheels were painted white and an Amazon Prime ordered light bar was dressed on the grille. Jeremy and Ron created a spoof livery on the Red Bull rally car of the same era. (Points for creativity!) I had no idea how the car was going to look until I saw at 11 pm the night before the race. Seeing my name on a professional looking rally car was a really good feeling.

A Symphony of Misfires

The start of the rally was a symphony of sputtering exhausts pipes, squeaky fan belts, and rough idling engines. Hood slams echoed as gamblers pushed their heaps to the start line. This was the 4th running of the Gambler. In previous years attendance was small. Around 40 teams entered last year, but thanks to social media a record setting 300 was expected to show up at the Portland Meadows horse track to start gambling. We arrived at 8 am and saw that over 700 teams had showed up! Unpresented and unplanned.

Teams ranged from chump cars and junkers to full builds and customs. Everything on wheels was represented at the event. AMC Eagles, lifted Crown Vics, a JDM Firetruck, 70s land yachts and wagons, limos, Pontiac Fieros, a white hearse, smokey motorcycles, ex-food trucks, vans, muscle cars, Jeeps and Subarus, and a $600 Toyota Prius! Our unofficial celebrity guest was Fred Williams, editor-at large for Peterson’s 4-Wheel & Off-road and host of Dirt Everyday, who showed up in a wicked 4×4 Dodge Tradesman.

Fred William’s Far Out 4×4 Dodge Tradesman

When Team Rabid Beaver set off it was 11 am and we were the 721th car to leave the starting point. We were given a paper with a list of GPS coordinates to different way points along the way towards the overnight checkpoint. Each waypoint ranged in road difficulty. Easy ones were just off the highway. Median way points involved dirt roads and pot holes. The most hardcore off road waypoints were appropriately named “Satan’s B***hole” in terms of difficulty. These required ATV permits. Vehicles that could handle rock climbing.

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There were only two rules in the rally, “If you aren’t having fun, go find some!” And “Always be Gamblin!” Enjoy the fun of being the weirdest convoy on the road. Driving through small towns like a herd of renegades in vehicular cosplay. Playing on the CB to live out your Cannonball Run day dreams while following the unwritten rule of stopping if you see a fellow Gambler on the side of the road. Big feeling of comradery among us as Gamblers. We were all here to have fun and nearly everyone was a first timer so we all shared the experience.

The Gambler 500 was sponsored by NAPA auto parts which gave Gamblers a 10% discount during the race. Also, the Gambler is not a race so you don’t need to wear crash helmets or invest in a 5 point safety harness. Only things required on gambler vehicles is for it to be road legal and a CB radio for emergencies since cellphone signal can be dicey in the Oregon country side.

Woodstock for Oil Burners

The overnight checkpoint for the rally was a ski lodge near the city of Sister, Oregon, named Hoodoo (Who-doo). By the time the Red Beaver arrived the ski lodge was completely full and we had to park in the street along with several dozen other Gambler teams.

Hoodoo entrance gate

The scene was wild. Crazy cars littered the parking lot with tents and camps set up around them. Alcohol vendors were on the scene handing out samples and by 10 pm everyone was holding at least one sudsy beverage in their hand. Live music echoed as we walked the grounds checking out the cars and observing the crowd. Guns, cars, and music was the only topics of conversation. No politics, no current events. Nothing annoying. There was even a city bus that had been converted into a mobile Tattoo parlor that was opened for business.

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What amazed me was that we had over 800 vehicles, with 3 or more people per vehicle. At least 90% of us were new to the event with drinks flowing freely. I didn’t sleep at all that night, mostly because I didn’t prepare for winter conditions in July. Spending the night freezing allowed me to listen and observe the campgrounds. Were we loud? Of course! But all you could hear was talking and laughter. No fighting, no shouting, no foul language echoing in the distance, no dangerous burnouts, and no cops. It was surreal seeing such a diverse group of people spending the night together and getting along. No drama, just civil fun with beer breathe.

Naturally the restrooms were a mess but what do you expect? A few wild cards started setting off fireworks but were quickly shut down (Smokey the Bear didn’t approve). Others who brought bikes were riding up and down the ski slopes in the darkness. A few college kids dancing on the hoods of cars. The point is that all these people showed up and nobody got hurt, nobody was offended, and nobody’s car caught on fire. The planets were aligned in the Gambler’s favor that night.

By 2am most had gone to sleep except for a few dozen huddled around the bonfire. The band had called it a night and allowed anyone to grab an instrument and jam. I couldn’t sleep so I stood listening to the group of strangers play together. They played tunes that reminded me of Link Wray and Dick Dale. Surfer music, exhaustion, and the few beers I had made for some essential thinking while looking up at the stars in the moonless Oregon sky.

Junkers for a Good Cause

The end of the rally was back at Portland Meadows were it began. All cars were able to cross the finish line and park in the horse track infield to create the most outrageous looking parking lot. Once we were all here the awards were given out. This year’s winner was given to a man who visited all the waypoints in a $500 Honda 500cc motorcycle that he put together days before the rally started.

The cherry on top of the Gambler 500 sundae is the auction held after the awards. At the end of the rally anyone who wants to sell their ride can do so at the auction and 100% of the money goes towards the Children’s Cancer Association. How awesome is that? Anyone who buys a gambler car will have an automatic entry for next year’s rally.

Sold for $500

Ramblin for Next Year’s Gamblin

I was able to talk briefly to T. Cole, founder and organizer for the Gambler 500. My main question for him was how they planned to control the number of Gamblers for next year. A large attendance was a great surprise but things could have quickly gotten out of hand. No secret that we were lucky this year. Cole couldn’t give me a definitive answer but I assume that ticket sales to partake in the rally will be in order next year. Money will be the factor that separates the real Gamblers from the trouble makers. The Gambler 500 is not a Gumball 3000 or Cannonball Run. They want this to be a family friendly event that focuses on fun and not speed.

I was able to talk to Fred Williams and ask him for a quote on this event. His answer was as accurate as it was funny.

“The Gambler 500 is all the people waiting to be extras in the next Mad Max movie.”

After spending 2 days looking at some of these creative rides I can certainly agree with him. Everyone was friendly and everyone I talked to was excited to do this again next year. Jeremy, Ron, and I spent most of the time on the road thinking of theme ideas for next year. What kind of car? Livery and costume ideas? How will one decision impact the other? Best road game ever. Check out the Gambler 500’s FB page to see more content and vides of this year’s gamble.

Below is a gallery of some of the Rides from the Gambler 500.

The Battleship Lincoln

Original drivetrain and chassis, slightly modified of course

Used to be a 1999 Crown Vic

Used to be a 1970 Cadillac

$600, owner just removed all fuses and added a skid plate

Miniature Dog Van

1941 Dodge Power Wagon Weapon’s Carrier. All original!

Beastie Boys Cosplay

Mighty MG

“If you ain’t first….”

Fancia, Get it?

It’s a Pontiac Fiero dressed up like a Lancia Stratos

Mary Kay Special

“Make Mexico Great Again”

My favorite decal of the entire event.

Gambler 500 is officially an international event.

These guys used the Gambler 500 as a company retreat. Are they hiring?

Not your typical hair dresser’s car

No idea, but I want one.

A mail truck Jeep!

Discount Roadkill Muscle Truck

Good Old Truck

Only Suzuki represented

Long live the Crown Vic

Reminded me of 80’s NASCAR

This Cheby was wraped in printed Duct Tape

Looked as if the internet had vomited on this thing.

A Pontiac Bonneville dressed to look like the T/A Trans Am

Get It?

Great name for a Crown Vic

Breakdown lane to the Danger Zone

Team Suburbia

Moon Buggy Scoobie

“This is a van”

An International Pickup, these are getting rare.

Crown Vics were a favorite vehicle of choice at the G500

AMC Eagles!

A Brown 70’s Olds, love it.

a JDM fire truck

Left hand drive

Canadian Mopar

Wizard Van

The OJ Special

An Olds Cutlass

Imagine seeing this heard in your rear view

Mad Max Mustang

Mark 5 Mercury Wagon

I called it the Mercury 5

A hearse, because of course

I want one

Honda hatchback

Mods

These 2 Camaros drove all the way from the East Coast to be here

Costumes are encouraged

Strongly encouraged

AMC Eagles, may they live on

This Dodge looked ready for the Baja 500

Push

This food truck reject was sold at the auction for $400

Read more stories and articles here.

A road trip rally, a two day party, and a charity car auction. This is the Gambler 500. What’s the Gambler 500? It’s a Road Trip Rally “It’s not a race, it’s a challenge.” A quote taken from 1976 film the Gumball Rally.

[duaneodavila]

1L Class Represents At Harvard Law School — And It’s Picture Perfect

Harvard Law School Class of 2021 Representing (Photo by Armani Madison, Daniel Oyolu, and Shane Fowler)

“When you bring my name up to the judge, just tell him facts / Tell him how we funding all these kids to go to college / Tell him how we ceasing all these wars, stopping violence / Trying to fix the system and the way that they designed it / I think they want me silenced (Shush) / Oh, say you can see, I don’t feel like I’m free / Locked down in my cell, shackled from ankle to feet / Judge banging that gavel, turned me to slave from a king / Another day in the bing, I got to hang from a string.” ��� Meek Mill

This week, David Casey, Chief Diversity Officer at CVS Health, shared a picture on his LinkedIn of 60 first-year Harvard Law School students (1Ls) from the African Diaspora. As of today, it has over 600 likes. My friend Van Ann Bui, SEO Law Director, brought this picture-perfect moment to ATL’s attention.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of another recent viral picture that originated from a neighborhood I lived in a few years back, Deep Ellum in Dallas, Texas. My former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services colleague Erica Broussard and the creative behind the photo, her husband NeAndre Broussard, have been the highlights of my social media feeds as of late.

As highlighted by NBC DFW earlier this month:

The photo shows about 100 men of color, dressed in suits, surrounding 6-year old Harper Anthony, of Chicago. The boy also wore a suit, and without direction, put his fist in the air. ‘It’s a great capture,’ said NeAndre Broussard. ‘It shows that while you’re up next, we’re all behind you and pushing you where you need to go.’

In his interview with ABC WJLA, Broussard stated that he was “trying to make a change, trying to change the narrative.” He started the Black Menswear social media national campaign following several police shootings of minority males. Broussard told ABC “Every time a victim was portrayed in the media, it was always the worst picture.” But time and time again, we witness how unconscious bias, implicit bias, and social narratives paint a much brighter picture of white perpetrators.

On Monday, Us Director Jordan Peele told Ian Roberts, in front of the audience at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre: “I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie. Not that I don’t like white dudes, but I’ve seen that movie. It really is one of the best, greatest pieces of this story, is feeling like we are in this time — a renaissance has happened and proved the myths about representation in the industry are false,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Peele’s comments will no doubt rile a few feathers. And it will likely offend those same birds who were offended by Brie Larson’s position, which was published in Marie Claire, of wanting to increase diversity in the film and press industries. As the saying goes, “when you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

This week, I had the opportunity to catch up with the organizers of the Harvard 1L photograph shoot — Armani Madison, Daniel Oyolu, and Shane Fowler. Their journeys to law school and motivations for organizing a picture of one of the largest classes of black students in HLS’s history are truly remarkable. I found their stories inspirational and learned quite a bit from them. I believe you will as well. Here is a (lightly edited and condensed) write-up of our conversation:

Renwei Chung (RC): How did you choose your undergraduate school and then Harvard Law School?

Armani Madison

Armani Madison (AM): As a low-income student, I received the opportunity to learn about and to apply free-of-charge to Brown University as a QuestBridge Scholar. For law school, I wanted an institution with a strong community of students of color, and which would provide the resources that would best support me in my education, such as a robust offering of clinics, empowering students to make real-world impact as they learn. The generosity of Harvard’s financial aid program also enabled me to make this decision.

Daniel Oyolu (DO): As much as I loved growing up in Texas, I wanted to explore another part of the country in college. After learning about liberal arts schools, I selected Bates College because of its scholarly reputation, down to Earth and collegial culture, location in the Northeast, and a generous financial aid package. For law school, I chose Harvard because it affords students the freedom and resources to fully pursue any intellectual or professional interests.

Shane Fowler (SF): Growing up in a working-class family, the financial benefits of attending an in-state public institution were very attractive. With that being said, I was a Wildcat at birth. I couldn’t imagine attending any other undergrad school than the University of Kentucky. For law school, I wanted to attend the school that gave me the most flexibility after graduation. OCS and OPIA at HLS really work hard to give students the widest range of opportunities.

RC: What motivated you to organize the photo?

AM: We wanted to find a way to celebrate the beauty and brilliance of our class and to inspire other students across the country with positive images of Black students succeeding in higher education.

We knew that our class was among the largest classes of black students in Harvard Law’s history, and we wanted to visually tell that story. Within this one photo are many incredible narratives and ambitions, and we wanted to share this with others.

RC: What do you hope people take away from this picture?

AM: Although these pictures celebrate our class, the message goes beyond this. We intended for these pictures to inspire young people of color, and to impress upon them that people who look like them and have similar beginnings are surviving and thriving in the arena of higher education.

Regardless of where students matriculate, we want to encourage students to dream big, show them that success is possible, and let them know that we are rooting for them.

RC: What does representation mean to you?

Daniel Oyolu

DO: Our identities are shaped by history, our families and communities, lived experiences, and other circumstances. Representation is seeing the richness and complexity of your own identity in every part of society.

We want all students to think, “I can see myself there.” Sometimes, seeing the possibility is all you need to take the next step. Representation offers that possibility.

RC: Can you tell us a little bit about your background, life journey, and what originally interested you in law school?

AM: I’m from Stockbridge, Georgia. I attended Brown University for undergrad, where I studied Political Science. I was involved in campus activism and became particularly interested in causes impacting young people of color. The limited access to invested legal representation experienced by marginalized communities, particularly young people, is a grave injustice, and I hope to tackle the problem as a lawyer. I am interested in civil rights law.

DO: I was born in Toronto, Canada as the son of Nigerian immigrants and grew up in a very diverse Houston, Texas. Later, I attended Bates College in Maine, studied Spanish, and spent semesters abroad in Cuba, Spain, and Brazil. My experiences around the world showed me firsthand how individuals can live under the same legal system but not have equal opportunity to exercise their rights. I wanted to tackle these phenomena via law school.

SF: I’m from Cynthiana, Kentucky. It’s a blue-collar town with some of the most caring people you’ll ever meet. I went to the University of Kentucky, where I majored in Communications and minored in Biology. My interest in law school is rooted in my upbringing in Rural America. I hope to one day reduce the barriers on education, employment and healthcare that currently plague the region.

RC: What activities are you involved with outside the classroom?

AM: I am involved as a student attorney for the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project and the Harvard Defenders, an organization which represents low-income clients in criminal show-cause hearings. I am also a proctor (basically a super-RA) for first-year undergraduates at Harvard College. Outside of Harvard, I am involved as an active member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.

DO: I am a member of the Harvard Mediation Program where I co-mediate various types of disputes in small claims court in the city. Also, I am part of the Community Outreach Initiative of the Harvard Immigration Project where we advise recent immigrants on options for immigration relief. Additionally, I’m an active member of the Black Law Students Association, Harvard African Law Association, and the Texas Club.

SF: I joined the Mississippi Delta Project. It is a student organization that provides policy and legal services to clients in the Mississippi Delta region. Aside from that, I am a member of the Community Outreach committee for the Black Law Student Association here at Harvard.

RC: What advice do you have for others who are thinking about applying to law school?

AM: Reach out to current students and graduates doing what you want to do and ask questions. More likely than not, any of us would be thrilled to talk to you. As students of color, we are less likely to have close connections with people with professional degrees. Neither the law school website nor a law school blog will give you an accurate sense of what it is like to be a student of color at a given institution.

DO: Law school is a significant investment so take your time and assess why you want to attend. Take advantage of the pre-law resources at your undergraduate institution and reach out to current and past law school students to learn more about the process and how to navigate it. Lastly, law school admission counselors are people just like you who are captivated by compelling stories. There is only one YOU in the world. Share that story.

Shane Fowler

SF: Be confident in your story. Let that prospective school really know who you are because you matter, and your background, your upbringing, your perspective is powerful. Also, understand that you can excel at numerous institutions around this country. The “T-14” schools don’t have a monopoly on producing amazing lawyers. You can do great things anywhere.

RC: What is something they don’t tell you about law school?

AM: Just how intense it is. I was definitely not prepared for how much work law school is, from the nights spent at the library to the experience of having to change entirely how you have been used to writing for your entire life. My suggestion is to ask questions where you have them, to build relationships, to stay active with a hobby, and to maintain a way to remind yourself why you came here when motivation is low.

DO: Call me crazy but it is possible to enjoy your time in law school. Is law school hard? Absolutely! However, lots of things in life are hard and for many students of color, life presents obstacles that are harder than law school itself. Do not shortchange or underestimate your ability to thrive. Find your community of friends, engage that inspirational professor, pursue hobbies outside of school, and don’t forget the passion that drove you to law school.

SF: The self-doubt it may bring. Personally, my first month at Harvard Law was plagued with insecurity. I convinced myself that I didn’t belong here. Thankfully, the black community at HLS, my section classmates, and my Professors were incredibly supportive and helped me reaffirm that my spot at this school was deserved. So, I want to reaffirm to anyone who may be experiencing similar doubt – you belong!

RC: What would you change about our society if you could?

AM: Having worked in education before law school, I would love to see our educational system transformed into one of equity and intention as it relates to serving marginalized students. I would love to see free higher education and vastly improved infrastructure to serve students of color. While we’re at it, let’s remove school resource officers and reform the ways that we evaluate academic performance and handle student discipline in the K-12 system. Can we also abolish standardized testing?

DO: I wish all individuals in our society had adequate resources to live the lives they choose to live and not the lives they have to live. I don’t consider myself to be a special person. I was simply fortunate enough to have access to a great education, extracurricular activities, strong support system, healthcare, economic security, and safe neighborhood. If more students growing up had access to these same resources, our society would dramatically change for the better.

SF: The economic inequality and wealth disparity in this country presents unique, and alarming challenges for the future of our society. I would change how our society views those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Viewing the poor with compassion would lead to policy decisions that promote affordable healthcare, adequate working wages, and educational opportunities without the crippling student loan debt.

RC: If you could put anything on a billboard outside of HLS, what would it be?

AM: “Bring your full self and let your authenticity shine.”

DO: “Live Your Renaissance.”

SF: “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

If you have any further questions for our interviewees, be sure to reach out to them: Armani can be reached via LinkedIn, Facebook, and email. Daniel can be reached via LinkedIn, Instagram, and email. And Shane can be reached by Instagram and email.

On behalf of everyone here at Above the Law, I want to thank Armani, Daniel, and Shane for sharing their story and wisdom with our audience. We look forward to following their successes!

Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.

1L Class Represents At Harvard Law School — And It’s Picture Perfect republished via Above the Law

[blkrosebks]

Franklin Jones #GitLitBookSocialClub Here's the true, and secret reason why they've socially engineered many Black people to call themselves n#ggers, thugs, hoes and bad bitches. Words become thoughts within our mind. Our thoughts are important part of our inner wisdom and they are powerful. A thought held long enough and repeated often enough becomes a belief. A belief becomes your biology. This happened without most people even realizing it. Certainly there are some of you that will doubt that disclosure--- especially those of you that frequently uses those terms and are therefore already under it's programming. However, this disclosure is verifiable. To do so all you have to do is conduct a mental review of your own circle of friends and family. Then critically think about the behavioral and life style differences between those of that frequently uses the terms of bitches, hoes, niggers and thugs, and those family and friends that do not. There are always some slight exceptions to every rule, however for the most part- if you're being totally honest with yourself then you'll admit to noticing that those people that do not use those terms, to describes themselves and others, tend to carry themselves within a higher degree of self respect. Words do have power. Furthermore, if you pay closer attention you'll even notice that most of our Blacks youths that wears their pants sagging from their asses are very often the same ones that habitually uses the word nigger to describes themselves. Moreover, men that frequently calls their women bitches, and hoes may also have a higher tendency to frequently mistreat their women-because disrespecting women naturally comes easier for a man that regards her as being a bitch,or a hoe. And women that proclaim themselves as being bitches tends to have no problem acting like a bitch. And a man the proclaims himself as a being a thug is more likely to engaged within a fight than he is to try and avoid one, etc... Again words do have power! Words become thoughts within the our mind, and these thought when held long enough and repeated often enough becomes a belief. A belief that eventually becomes our biology. This phenomenon happens without the persons using the words even realizing it. THE WHITE SOCIAL ENGINEERING SCIENTIST HAVE STUDIED THIS PHENOMENON SINCE THE 1930's Presently there are white social engineering scientists that manipulates the perceptions and opinions of the masses. These men govern our minds, molds our opinions of the world, and of ourselves through the societal information they present to us through the media. Because whites control the media that Black people routinely receives this allows these social engineering scientists to shrewdly indoctrinate self deprecating cultural norms among the Black population. Self deprecating cultural norms that gets us using terrible words to describe ourselves. Case and point: THE WORD BITCH: For years the term "Bitch" was deemed extremely offensive to millions of Black women. However, once they started putting the word in rap songs and repackaged it to sound empowering as being a "Bad Bitch"--behind a cool musical track, young Black girls then became desensitized to the term. Then before long many Black girls began using the term to describe themselves as being "Bad Bitches". Millions of Black women, young and not so young, were socially engineered to perceive themselves as bad bitches through popular music. Most of us believe that the media reflects our reality, but it is in fact rarely ever the case. The media most often forms our behaviors, beliefs, and perceptions of our collective selves through the images that it routinely shows us. The media's ability to effect the beliefs, control the behaviors, and form cultural norms among Black populations is immensely powerful. So much in fact, that if the white media social engineering scientist wanted blacks youths to start walking around daily with a Afro comb in their right back pockets, all they would have to do is routinely saturate the media ( rap videos and movies) with that image being depicted as being very cool. In doing so our Black youths would then adopt the image as being totally of their own making although it is fact not. It is an image created by white social engineers. Those Black people that do not think critically--and question the validity of all information being constantly fed into their minds from entirely white sources--never notices what is being done to them. This is all possible because people are like a computers, all you have to do is keep giving them certain information every so often and you can persuade an entire country or nation towards an implied objective. Because perceptions created by the media leads to non-deliberate thoughtful decision-making or decision below the level of consciousness. It has been called "thinking without thinking", and it ultimately leads to unconscious similar behaviors. It doesn't matter if the information is true or not most will agree because they too have been given the same information. This also means that they that controls the media that a population watches, also controls the collective brainstem of that population. THE WORD NIGGER Perhaps their greatest feat of negative media social engineering is seen in how white media controllers took the word of "nigger", a words once reviled and deemed deeply offensive by millions of African Americans, and not only desensitized them to the word, but also convinced millions to now favorably perceive the word as a term of endearment. Up until the mid 1960's the word nigger was viewed unfavorably by most African Americans. That era's generation of African Americans had experienced dehumanizing segregation, and many also had great grand parents that were born during slavery. Therefore, they knew intimately well the brutality and degradation that often accompanied the ugly taunts of the word nigger. Therefore, the usage of the word was most often forbidden within many African American homes. It was deemed as being a profoundly offensive word. The usage of the word nigger became more accepted among African Americans during the late 60's and early 70's as the popularity of Blaxploitation films grew. Blaxploitation is a term coined in the early 1970s to refer to black films that were aimed at black audiences. Featuring African-American actors in lead roles, the films were frequently condemned for stereotypical characterization and glorification of violence. Critics of the films saw them as morally bankrupt and as portraying black actors in the most negative way. Those Blaxploitation film were most often written, directed, and produced by Whites. It was that era's Black exploitation films that first taught African American youths on a national level that it was a cool and trendy term of endearment to call themselves niggers. In those films, most often written entirely by whites screenplay writers, black actors were hired to shuck and jive and to repeatedly called themselves niggers. The word was even made to appear as being funny at times. Such as in the contexts of "Nigger Please". This favorable nigger indoctrinating process was repeated in countless numbers of Blaxploitation films. Here's a list of just a few of those movies: The Black Klansman (1966), Black Like Me (1964) Black Lolita (1975), Black Mama White Mama (1973), Black Rage (1972), Scream Blacula Scream (1973), Shaft (1971), Shaft in Africa (1973), Shaft's Big Score (1972), Sheba, Baby (1975)etc... Within each of these films, financed by White owned movie studios, Black actors routinely called each other niggers. Some of these films also blatantly included the word nigger in its titles such as Boss Nigger (1975), Run Nigger Run (1974), and The Soul of Nigger Charley (1973) etc... Most people think that movies are made for nothing more than entertainment. That never was the case. The greatest social messages are promoted through movies. Social norms promoted through films can influence the way of thinking and the “cognitive map” of the populated audience. In a normal conversation when using logic and facts your guard is naturally up. But when your watching a movie there's no debate, your guard is down, the sensor part of your brain is not in action, it isn’t saying yes I agree with this, or I disagree with that like you would in a debate or a conversation. You’re actually in an alpha state being completely downloaded with ideas and images. Those Blacks exploitive films were well received by many African American audiences because they provided them with cinematic Black heroes on the silver screen in a portrayal unseen in most Hollywood pictures prior to that time. Therefore, African Americans flocked to the theaters in droves to see themselves being represented as heroes on the big screen. However, these films are the direct reason so many African Americans began using the self deprecating term of nigger to describe themselves. Many Black audiences, believing that those fictional movie characters were true, accurate representation of their group as a collective whole began imitating what they saw in the movies -this included calling themselves niggers. Here's why this negative social engineering of Black people is deemed necessary: "If Black people are to remain in slavery they must be kept in the lowest state of ignorance and degradation, and the nearer you bring them to the conditions of brutes the better chance they have to retain their apathy".- Dr. Carter G. Woodson TODAY IT'S THE WHITE CONTROLLED HIPHOP MUSIC INDUSTRY THATS TELLING BLACK YOUTHS THAT THEIR NIGGERS. Presently, many Black people that refers to themselves as Niggers have bought into the falsehood now being perpetuated through the hiphop music industry --that saying nigger is cool, and trendy. Moreover, that the word is now one of empowerment, and a form of privilege given that only we can say it. However, nothing could be further from the truth. When a Black person becomes convinced that he or she is a nigger this can have profoundly negative effect upon the individual. Our thoughts are important part of our inner wisdom and they are powerful. A thought held long enough and repeated often enough becomes a belief. A belief becomes your biology. THE WORD NEGUS NOWADAYS whenever an attempt to discourage the usage of the word nigger there are some African Americans that insist the we use the word Negus instead. There are literally thousands of languages and dialects in Africa; and each one of them has a word that means King. Given this fact, don't you find it suspicious that the ONLY word, among those many thousands, that's being circulated and propagated in the U.S, is the one that sounds like n#ggers? To believe that this is merely an amazing coincident is ridiculously absurd and naive! We're again being negative socially engineered by whites. WAKE UP BLACK PEOPLE THERE'S A DELIBERATE REASON WHY THE ONLY ONE BEING PROPAGATED IS THE ONE WORD THAT SOUNDS LIKE NIGGERS. There is deliberate reason why the word Negus was introduced, and is being so strongly propagated within the African American communities in spit of the fact that there are literally thousands of other African words that also means King. The introduction of the word Negus provides the white social scientists with a covert mean of getting millions of African Americans to hold on to the n#gger ideology and behavior that was indoctrinated into millions of African Americans during the 1970's. Millions of dollars and man hours were poured into into a campaign to socially engineering African Americans to believe that they're niggers. I know that this may sound crazy to some of you , but it's absolutely the truth. This is what mental slavery is. For many African Americans the word nigger is such a deeply engrained term of endearment that some will argue fiercely against anyone that suggest that they not use the word. Some literally ague that it is now a term of empowerment, and that it's their right to call themselves niggers. In fact some African Americans are so insistence on calling themselves niggers that they researched old African languages until they found a word that sounds close enough to it, but means something positive--because they can't bare to see calling themselves ANYTHING other than a nigger or soundalike derivative such as nigga, and negus. To the detriment of many Black people, this applied psychological conditioning has been an extremely successful. Some blacks have been so brainwashed to love this word that even when introduce to the truth about the word they will argue fiercely to keep using it. “Whoever controls media the images, controls your self-esteem, self-respect, and self-development." -- Dr. Leonard Jeffries Whoever controls the media also controls opinions and attitudes of the people. It's for all of these profound reasons, and more, why the media is a very effective weapon secretly used by the ruling elites against targeted populations. "The oppressed will always believe the worse about themselves" --Franz Fanon Until we break the monopoly the white oppressor has on our Black minds, liberation is not only impossible it is unthinkable". By Franklin Jones To learn more please visit www.theblackpeoplematrix.com Or Please visit and like the FB page entitled the Black Matrix perception management program designed to control we Black people. It is truly a real eye opener.

[kadobeclothing]

The Beginner’s Guide to Structured Data for Organizing & Optimizing Your Website

It’s Friday afternoon, and your team is jonesing for Happy Hour.

For the last few weeks, you’ve been going to the same ol’ bar by your office, so you decide it’s time to try something new. What do you do? Step outside and walk around until you find a new spot? No, you hop on Google and let it conduct the search for you. Your ideal post-work pub is nearby, open right after work, and offers a few gluten-free options so your entire team can partake. You plug these criteria into Google, and you’ve got three viable options at your fingertips — in a handy map format to boot. Pause. Have you ever wondered how Google can whip up such accurate, precise answers in so little time … and present them in such an easy-to-read way? Moreover, what are those restaurants doing to get featured so dominantly on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs)? Heck, I’d love my business to pop up when consumers search for criteria relevant to me … wouldn’t you? No one knows exactly how Google’s algorithm works — but, there are a few ways to organize and optimize your website content so Google knows what content to feature on the SERPs for the various searches people conduct to find you. This is where structured data comes in. Structured data can make your organization more visible to potential customers and increase your click-through rate by up to 30%. Not sure what structured data is? That’s OK. By the end of this guide, you’ll be a structured data wizard — and your website will reap the benefits.

What is structured data?

Structured data is any set of data that is organized and structured in a particular way on a webpage. In the case of SEO, structured data is organized and tagged with specific groups of text that help search engines understand the context of that information and can return accurate results to searchers.

We know that what searchers see online is much different than what search engines see. While searchers see this… Source … search engines see this: View the source code for any website by going to View > Developer > View Source. This behind-the-scenes code tells browsers how information should be organized on the website (as part of its website development) and tells web crawlers what’s on the page. Structured data is also at play here. Embedded tags of code (a.k.a. “markup”) throughout the HTML of a webpage tell Google and other search engines what information to display in the SERPs and what this information represents. It also helps social media platforms synthesize your social media posts into snippets that preview the content using Open Graph Protocol (which we touch on later). This markup is important. It educates search engines on what specific content is on the page. This creates more relevant, informed searches and makes the site a candidate for enhanced results like featured snippets, rich snippets, image and video carousels, knowledge boxes, and more (which we’ll touch on later).

Structured Data and SEO

Structured data is important for SEO because it helps search engines find and understand your content and website. It’s also an important way to prepare for the future of search, as Google and other engines continue to personalize the user experience and answer questions directly on their SERPs.

Google’s SERPs weren’t always as easy on the eye as they are today. Don’t remember? Check out this Google result for “pool tables” from 2008. Source Let’s compare. Here’s the same result from today.

Wow. That’s a world of difference. Not only are these results easier to read, but the extra features make for a much more informative, intelligent searching — and shopping — experience. Between the sponsored content and live map (plus the product carousel, question snippets, and related searches not shown in the screenshot), Google provides pretty much everything I need to know about pool tables. Heck, sometimes I search for something and find the answer right on the SERP — I don’t even have to click on a result. Does that ever happen to you? If it has, you can thank structured data. How does structured data work? At this point, you might be asking: How can there exist a language (markup) that is consistently recognized by search engines and people alike? In order for this markup to be accurately and universally understood, there are standardized formats and vocabularies that should be used. Let’s go back to basics for a minute. When conveying information, whether you’re communicating with a human or a computer, you need two main things: vocabulary (a set of words with known meanings) and syntax (a set of rules on how to use those words to convey meaning). Most terminology surrounding structured data markup can be organized into these two concepts — vocabularies and syntaxes — and webmasters can combine whichever two they need to structure their data (with the exception of Microformats). Okay … that’s enough of the fancy developer speak. What should you be using for your structured data? Schema.org is the accepted universal vocabulary standard for structured data. It was founded and is currently sponsored by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. It’s flexible, open-sourced, and constantly updated and improved. Note: Schema is called such because it features markup for a wide variety of schemas — or data models — for different types of content. Here’s an example of Schema Markup language (which is good for SEO) pulled from my article on branding. “@context” : “http://schema.org”, “@type” : “Article”, “name” : “The Ultimate Guide to Branding in 2019” “author” : { “@type” : “Person”, “name” : “Allie Decker” }, “datePublished” : “2019-04-02”, “image” : “https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/branding-2.jpg”, “url” : “https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/branding”, “publisher” : { “@type” : “Organization”, “name” : “HubSpot” As for syntax, there’s no correct answer. Google recommends JSON-LD (and defaults to that syntax when using its Structured Data Markup Helper — as you see below). JSON-LD uses Javascript code and embedded widgets to dynamically display your content, which is typically a simpler development process. Google also recognizes Microdata and RDFa. Both of these syntaxes use HTML to identify properties within structured data. Microdata is typically only used in the page body, whereas RDFa is commonly used in both the page head and body. On the other hand, JSON-LD is only placed in the page head, meaning, for certain types of markup, JSON-LD makes it so you don’t have to navigate subheaders, supporting copy, and related styling that’s included in the page’s HTML. This is why JSON-LD is considered simpler than the other two. Ultimately, it all depends on the data you’re trying to implement, what the benefit is to your website, and what would be easier to share with your team. Structured Data and Mobile Structured data affects mobile a little differently — through Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). Accelerated Mobile Pages is a Google-backed, open source project to help all mobile pages load quickly regardless of device. Pages with AMP markup appear within Google’s special SERP features, such as Top Stories and News Carousels. Here’s how to create an AMP HTML page. Source Structured Data and Social Media Structured data markup works a little differently for social platforms. This requires Open Graph Protocol and similar languages that ensure your website and blog content appear in an easy-to-read way when you promote this content on a social network. Two common social media features that use Open Graph Protocol are Pinterest Rich Pins and Twitter cards. We talk more about how to do this below. Here’s an example of Open Graph Protocol language (which is good for social media) using the same source. <meta property=”og:title” content=”The Ultimate Guide to Branding in 2019”/> <meta property=”og:type” content=”article”/> <meta property=”og:URL” content=”https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/branding” <meta property=”og:image” content=”https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/branding-2.jpg” <meta property=”og:admins” content=”Allie Decker” <meta property=”og:site_name” content=”HubSpot” <meta property=”og:description” content=”Discover how to create and manage a brand that helps your business become known, loved, and preferred” Note: Unfortunately, structured data doesn’t impact your organic search ranking (besides helping you grab a spot in a knowledge panel or Featured Snippet at the top of the list). It also doesn’t change how your content looks or behaves on your website — it only affects how and where it might appear on SERPs.

Examples of Structured Data To the average internet user, structured data can’t be seen. It’s hidden among the code that makes up our favorite websites and online platforms. So, how does structured data affect what we (and our customers) see? What does it look like to the “naked” eye? When webmasters adhere to structured data standards, search engines like Google and Bing reward their websites and organizations by featuring their content in a variety of SERP features (another reason to use structured data). Source Let’s talk about those features — specifically on Google. Google SERPs display a wide variety of information, but the ones we talk about below are specifically influenced by structured data. There are also a couple of ways that structured data can benefit your non-SERP marketing efforts on social media and email marketing. Content Features Content features appear as separate search results among normal search results. 1. Carousels Carousels show up as images with captions related to a search, such as movie actors, cars, or news articles. Searchers can click through these images to access a separate SERP for that search. Here’s how to use structured data to show up on Carousels.

2. Videos Videos function similarly to carousels but feature videos instead of images or other listings. Searchers can scroll through these results to directly access and watch each video. Based on how you mark-up your content, you may also qualify for video enhancements such as LIVE badges and video host carousels. Here’s how to use structured data to show up on videos.

3. Featured Snippets Featured Snippets display information relevant to a query — and link to a third-party website (which sets them apart from Answer Boxes and Knowledge Panels, which draw from public domain databases). They don’t count as one of the ten organic results on a SERP, so if you “win” the Snippet, your website shows up twice. Featured Snippets can also be displayed as quotes, tables, jobs, rich cards (for movies and recipes), or the question section titled “People may ask”. Here’s how to optimize your content for Google’s Featured Snippet box.

4. Knowledge Panels (a.k.a. Knowledge Graph Cards) Knowledge Panels pull together the most relevant information from a search and display it as a separate panel on the right side of a SERP. They typically include images, dates, and category-specific information, such as stock prices for companies or birthdays for celebrities. You can use a structured data markup like Schema to tag your content with all of these categories, but there’s no guarantee that Google will reward you with your own knowledge panel. In fact, structured data doesn’t promise anything, it only makes it easier for search engines and social networks to interpret your content. Also, Knowledge Panels aim to answer queries without requiring a click-through … good news for searchers, and bad news for businesses. Here’s how to make your site easier for bots to crawl (to increase your chances of showing up in a Knowledge Panel).

Enriched Search Features Unlike content features, enriched result features enhance regular search results. They’re also called rich search results or rich snippets. 1. Breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs “indicate a page’s position in the site hierarchy,” according to Google. Breadcrumbs appear on mobile devices, in place of a URL, above the title of the results page, and next to the site’s favicon (as of 2019). They help searchers understand a page’s relationship to the rest of a website. Here’s how to use structured data to display breadcrumbs in your results.

2. Sitelinks and Sitelinks Searchbox Sitelinks are additional links displayed beneath a search result that navigate to different parts of a website. Google pulls them into a SERP when it thinks additional results would benefit a searcher. Websites with intelligent anchor text and alt text that’s informative, compact, and avoids repetition have a good chance of displaying a result with Sitelinks.

Sitelinks Searchbox is like Sitelinks with a search bar directly featured in the result. That search box uses Google — not the featured website — which creates a brand new SERP. Sitelinks Searchboxes only show up in branded searches. Here’s how to get a Sitelinks Searchbox for your website.

3. FAQ FAQ can be used on any page that lists questions and answers — not just traditional frequently asked questions (FAQ) pages. This feature allows searchers to access your questions and answers right from the SERP; it also extends your result vertically, taking up even more SERP real estate and helping your site stand out. Here’s how to use structured data to display FAQ in your search results.

4. How-To The how-to feature is similar to FAQ in that it displays a page’s content (if it fits certain criteria) on the SERP so searchers can see that information. It walks searchers through a set of steps and can feature video, text, and images. Unlike FAQ, the individual steps in how-to result aren’t linkable; however, searchers can access the entire list of steps by clicking your results. These results can show up in two formats: standard accordion layout or rich result carousel, depending on the content. Here’s how to use structured data to display how-to content in your search results. Source

Non-SERP Features Structured data can also be used to enhance to non-SERP features.

1. Social Cards Social-specific markup doesn’t have a big impact on SEO, but it’s still important for marketers to understand. Not only does this markup enhance your social posts and ad efforts, but it can also be read by search engines — which could contribute to any SEO changes in the future. Social cards display images and rich text when links are shared on social media. Any organization who uses social media to share content should be using proper social markup, such as Open Graph Protocol. Here’s how you ensure your social content displays social cards:

2. Email Marketing Have you recently booked a flight or ordered something online? If you have Gmail, you might’ve seen your reservation or order details summarized at the top of the confirmation email. This is due to email markup. If you send emails for orders, reservations, confirmations, or bookings, consider using email markup to make your email recipients’ lives easier. Here’s how to get started with email markup in Gmail.

How to Add Structured Data to a Website

Open Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper. Select your data type and enter the URL. Highlight page elements and assign data tags. Create the HTML. Add the schema markup to your page. Test your markup with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Diagnose and fix any detected issues. Be patient.

The concept of structured data might seem confusing, but its implementation isn’t nearly as complicated. In fact, there are a number of structured data tools that can help you along the way, namely Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper and Testing tools. Sure, you can implement structured data by hand, but Google’s tool ensures accuracy — and makes your life easier. It’s important to note that adding structured data markup on your website doesn’t guarantee a Featured Snippet or Sitelinks Sitebox. Google can take weeks to crawl your new HTML markup, and sometimes, the information doesn’t show up at all. However, taking the steps to implement structured data is critical. Google might be smart, but it can’t (yet) understand everything on its own. It might seem like a lot of extra work, but using the correct structured data markup will ensure Google can make sense of your content and can help you potentially increase your click-through rates and visibility. Here’s how to implement structured data by using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper tool. 1. Open Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper. Open up Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper tool.

2. Select your data type and enter the URL. Make sure the Website tab is open. Choose the type of data to which you’d like to add the HTML markup. Plug the web page URL (or the HTML code) at the bottom, and click Start Tagging.

3. Highlight page elements and assign data tags. When the tool loads, you should see your web page on the left side and data items on the right. Highlight different components of your web page to assign data tags such as name, author, and date published. (The tool will suggest different data tags for different types of data, i.e. Events or Book Reviews.)

As you select and assign data tags, you’ll see the information pop up under My Data Tags on the right panel. You can also add any missing tags that might not be visible on the web page; just click Add missing tags. 4. Create the HTML. When you’re finished tagging and assigning data items, click Create HTML in the upper right-hand corner. 5. Add the schema markup to your page. On the next screen, you should see your structured data markup on the right side. The tool automatically produces the script as JSON-LD markup, but you can change it to Microdata by clicking the JSON-LD drop-down menu in the top menu.

Click Download to download the script as an HTML file. To read more about adding structured data to your article (or any other data type), click Articles in the right corner above the markup. To “publish” your markup, copy and paste the new HTML markup into your CMS or source code of your web page. Lastly, click Finish in the top right corner to check out Google’s recommended Next Steps … one of which will bring you to this next one. 6. Test your markup with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Open up Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. You can enter any URL of a web page you’d like to test, or you can enter HTML code. (In the example below, I’m analyzing the code previously produced by Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper Tool.) Click Run Test to begin.

7. Diagnose and fix any detected issues. The tool will show you your HTML markup on the left side and the markup analysis on the right. Note any red errors or warnings. Click on any data row to highlight the corresponding markup on the left. If necessary, you can edit any errors in the HTML directly in the tool panel before “publishing” the tested HTML markup. 8. Be patient. This last step is simple but arguably the hardest — to sit back and wait. Google can take weeks to re-crawl new HTML, and even then, your content isn’t guaranteed to show up in rich snippets or other SERP features. As long as you follow the correct structured data standards and markup, give Google all the information it needs to know, and be patient, your website and business can benefit greatly from structured data and enhanced SEO. Get Started with Structured Data Today Google and other search engines continuously improve how they aggregate and present information. They offer enhanced, intelligent search experiences with the customer in mind. It’s up to you as a business to keep up, and you can do so through structured data. Structured data benefits businesses — through increased visibility — and consumers — through better usability. Use this guide, tools, and resources to optimize and organize your website and make your customers’ lives easier. Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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