#black women mena men

[melaninmonroemedia]

Déja J Bowens and Kerim Hassan in Champion, 2023.

CHAMPION (2023– ) ｜S01E05 “I Love Her Man”   directed by Adeyemi Michael

[sapphicsvibes]

my last post was also about the discussions of transmisogyny centering cis female athletes who are women of color. there is a wider conversation being had about transmisogyny in athletics, and that is that, trans women aren't even allowed to compete. before we start discussing how transmisogyny impacts not trans fems, we need to actually center the discussion around the heavily, transmisogynstic shit that is already happening.

and when we talk about how cis woc athletes being overly masculinized and decide to call it transmisogyny instead of what it actually is, racism, it sets us back. there is this understood idea that people can be indirectly impacted by transmisogyny, but unless the subjects of those conversations are transfeminine people, then the focus shouldn't be transmisogyny.

it should be racism. it should be the fact that the white, western gender binary and idea of femininty/womanhood is so fucked up that cis girls of color from a young age are viewed as more masculine, dangerous and larger than white women. we should be focusing on the complexities of misogynoir that black girls go through from childhood to adult hood where we are both masculinized and also hypersexualized and exposed to harmful race science that gets us preyed upon by older men. we should focus on how these conversations of masculinizing women of color comes to play in how white women and white afabs (yes, i know i said i dont like using afabs but i am starting ot use it when discussing the lived experience of white afab people and how that negatively impacts people of color in queer spaces) can utilize their privilege, tears, femininity, etc., to turn society against cis girls of color and how we are automatically seen as a threat to them

we need to talk about racialized misogyny when dicussing imane khelif, and how white women like jk rowling, who has a history of transmigoyny yes, but also anti-arab/MENA racism and islamaphobia, and is prominent in alt right groups, is using her platform to attack a possible muslim, MENA woman. and that's a big thing that hardly anyone talks about - Rowling is heavily islamphobia and anti-arab. when you se guys see her attacking a MENA woman, and decide to focus solely on transmisogyny, you are quite literally erasing a huge chunk of her bigotry.

yes, indirect transmisogyny comes to play, but when you are talking about racialized misogyny, you NEED to make sure that is the main focus - racism and misogyny, because if you don't you make it hard if not impossible for us to have any type of productive conversation. you guys being too afraid to call out racism and misogyny makes it seem like you are shielding white women/afabs and white society from the pain they have put women of color through for decades.

the same goes for misogynoir??? like when we are talking about misogynoir and them completely ignore it and lump it under transmisogyny, who does that help? not only does the black community have an issue with transmisogyny in general, but it also erases a term that we've come up with to help better discuss our oppression.

also, this isn't to say that trans woc don't face racialized misogyny and misogynoir (black transfems!) because they do. but it should be understood that while THEY face these things, transmisogyny is something that should also center them. and while we, as non trans fem women do face racialized misogyny/misogynoir - yeah, sometimes we can draw comparisons between transmisogyny, but we shouldn't be the ones taking the lead or taking platforms.

and last but not least, the way you guys who are claiming what is happening to cis female athletes is transmisogynistic. Do you know how many trans people, who aren't trans fem, that i've seen saying

"see, this is why we need to talk about transmisogyny affecting non transfems! xyz athlete was actually born a woman, she's not a man, she is afab! she has a vagina!" do you realize how that language is terfy, do you realize how you guys will try to hijack convos of transmisogyny while also reinforcing transmisogynistic requirements of what makes a woman a woman?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Clay Jones, Claytoonz: The new GOP mantra

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 25, 2024 (Thursday)

Momentum continues to build behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, and the national narrative as a whole has shifted.

Democrats appear to be generating significant enthusiasm among younger Americans. Yesterday, for the first time in their history, the March for Our Lives organization endorsed a presidential candidate: Kamala Harris. Students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, organized March for Our Lives after the shooting there in 2018. Executive director Natalie Fall said that the organization “will work to mobilize young people across the country to support Vice President Harris and other down-ballot candidates, with a particular focus on the states and races where we can make up the margin of victory—in Arizona, New York, Michigan, and Florida.”

Andrea Hailey of Vote.org announced that in the 48 hours after President Biden said he would not accept the Democratic nomination, nearly 40,000 people registered to vote. That meant a daily increase in new registrations of almost 700%.

People are turning out for Harris in impressive numbers. In the hours after she launched her campaign, Win With Black Women rallied 44,000 Black women on Zoom and raised $1.6 million. On Monday, around 20,000 Black men rallied to raise $1.2 million. Tonight, challenged to “answer the call,” 164,000 white women joined an event that “broke Zoom” and raised more than $2 million and tens of thousands of new volunteers.

Another significant endorsement for Harris came yesterday from Geoff Duncan, the Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia, who wrote on social media: “I’m committed to beating Donald Trump. The only vehicle left for me to do that with is the Democratic Party. If that requires me to vote for, speak for, or endorse [Kamala Harris] then count me in!” Duncan’s public announcement offers permission for other Georgia Republicans to make a similar shift. In 1964, South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond similarly paved the way for southern Democrats to vote for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

Harris’s appearances are generating such enthusiasm from audiences that when she delivered the keynote address this morning at the convention of the American Federation of Teachers in Houston, Texas, the applause delayed her ability to begin. After a speech defending education and calling out the cuts to it in Project 2025, Harris ended by demonstrating that after decades of Democrats being accused of being anti-American, Trump’s denigration of the country has enabled the party to claim the position of being America’s defenders.

“When we vote, we make our voices heard,” Harris said. “So today, I ask you, AFT, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it? And when we fight, we win! God bless you and God bless the United States of America.”

Today the Commerce Department reported that economic growth in the second quarter was higher than expected, coming in at 2.8%, thanks to higher spending driven by higher wages. The country’s changing momentum is showing in media stories hyping the booming economy Biden’s team tried for years to get traction on. “Full Employment is Joe Biden’s True Legacy” was the title of a story by Zachary Carter that appeared yesterday in Slate; CNN responded to today’s good economic news with an article by Bryan Mena titled: “The US economy is pulling off something historic.”

With Harris appearing to have sewn up the nomination, the question has turned to her vice presidential pick. That question is fueling the sense of excitement as potential choices are in front of cameras and on social media advocating Democratic positions and defending the United States from Trump’s denigration. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro listed the economic gains of the past years, and said: “Trump, you’ve got to stop sh*t talking America. We’ve got to start standing tall and being patriotic and showing how much we love this amazing nation.”

The vice presidential hopefuls appear to be having some fun with showcasing their personalities, as Minnesota governor Tim Walz did in his video from the Minnesota State Fair where he and his daughter went on an extreme ride. So are social media users who have dug up old videos of, for example, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explaining how he would pilot a small starfighter that had lost its auxiliary shields, or Arizona senator Mark Kelly’s identical twin brother Scott pranking a fellow astronaut on the Space Station with a gorilla suit Mark smuggled on board.

That sense of fun is an enormous relief after years of political weight, and it has spilled over into making fun of the Republican ticket, most notably with a false story that vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance wrote about—and I cannot believe I am typing this—having sex with a couch. The story is stupid, but worse are the denials of it, which have spread the story into populations that otherwise would likely not have seen it.

Just two weeks ago, Vance appeared to be the leader of the next generation of extremist MAGA Republicans, but now that calculation seems to have been hasty. Vance is a staunch opponent of abortion—the key issue in 2024—and he has been vocal in his disdain of women who have not given birth, saying in 2021, for example, that the U.S. was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” He went on to say that people who don’t have children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country.

Republican commentator Meghan McCain noted that Vance’s “comments are activating women across all sides, including my most conservative Trump supporting friends. These comments have caused real pain and are just innately unchristian.” Actor Jennifer Aniston, who tends to stay out of politics, posted: “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States.” Vance had called out Harris by name in those 2021 comments, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff took to social media to defend Harris from Vance’s attacks on her as “childless,” calling her “a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.” Harris’s stepdaughter chimed in: “I love my three parents.”

Vance also ties the Republican ticket firmly to Project 2025. The Trump camp has worked to distance itself from Project 2025—not convincingly, since the two are obviously closely tied, but it turns out that Vance wrote the introduction for a forthcoming book by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, who was the lead author of Project 2025. The book appears to popularize that plan, right down to its endorsement of a “Second American Revolution,” and according to the book deal report, proceeds from the book will go to the Heritage Foundation “and aligned nonprofits.”

Now Vance’s words praising Project 2025 will be in print, just in time for the election. Yesterday, Trump posted: “I have nothing to do with, and know nothing about, Project 25 [sic]. The fact that I do is merely disinformation put out by the Radical Left Democrat Thugs. Do not believe them!”

Trump is clearly aware of, and concerned about, the changing narrative. This morning, he called in to Fox & Friends, saying, “We don’t need the votes. I have so many votes. I’m in Florida now…and every house has a Trump-Vance sign on it. Every single house…. It’s amazing the spirit…. This election has more spirit than I’ve ever seen ever before.” Tonight the Trump campaign proved their worry by backing out of debates with Harris, saying debates can’t be scheduled until she is the official nominee, although Biden was not the official nominee when they met in June.

The larger narrative shift has affected the media approach to Trump, who is accustomed to shaping perceptions as he wishes. Now, 12 days after the mass shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, there is increasing media attention to the fact that there has still been no medical report on Trump’s injuries, although he wore a large bandage on his ear at the Republican National Convention and said at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

Yesterday, FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress that it is not clear whether Trump was “grazed” by a bullet or by shrapnel, words that former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance called “FBI speak for, ‘it’s unlikely it was a bullet.’”

CNN chief medical consultant Dr. Sanjay Gupta noted last week that the people need a real medical evaluation of Trump’s injuries, explaining that “gunshot blasts near the head can cause injuries that aren’t immediately noticeable, such as bleeding in or on the brain, damage to the inner ear or even psychological trauma.” But, as Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has noted, much of the press has kept mum about the story.

Media outlets have reported Wray’s testimony, though, and in a social media post today, Trump called on Wray, whom he appointed to head the FBI, to resign from his post for “LYING TO CONGRESS.” Tonight, he reiterated that “it was…a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard.”

Perhaps eager to get back to their districts, House Republicans canceled their expected votes on appropriations bills scheduled for next week and left town today for their August recess. The House will not reconvene until early September. The government’s fiscal year 2025 begins on October 1.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[bijoumikhawal]

While I was doing a directors commentary about Bite the Hand that Starves You in my head a bit ago and talking about Garak and gender I did have a specific uncovering of my subconscious motives in how Garak is perceived by other Cardassians

Obviously in Bite, Garak is intersex and he's not in canon, but in all versions of canon Garak is effeminate and ASIT hints at an underlying anxiety he has about being ambiguously gendered/sexed because it's not properly Cardassian. But this also has led to a specific read I have of Garak and Barkan and Palandine (and Garak with women in general) which may be culturally specific- so like, in the MENA, a not insignificant amount of the anxiety about transfeminine sexuality isn't about cis men "accidentally" fucking transfeminine people. It's about transfeminine people's access to cis women (whether through being accepted as women or as a third gender category), and sometimes specifically, cis women CHOOSING to fuck transfeminine people instead of cis men. There's an Egyptian folktale about this which is also about fear of Black sexuality called "the Black Crow and the White Cheese".

Basically what I hit on is that I think when Garak was younger (especially with Barkan) his sexual/gender ambiguity was an open route to manipulation, but as he got older and wary, Garak’s sexual and gender ambiguity is instead a source of anxiety for Cardassian men because it is appealing not only to them, but to women- specifically, their wives, often because of the emotional and social failings common among Cardassian military men.

The "weakness" perceived in Garak’s effeminacy is attractive to people who need emotional support- as is seen in his relationships to women in ASIT (Palandine, Remara, and the unnamed Cardassian woman who cried on his shoulder in his shop). Barkan even insults him by saying he was manipulating Palandine on purpose via her emotional needs (and the running theme of sentiment being connected to Garak’s effeminacy and to his mixed race and Hebitian identity)

[tanadrin]

My favorite was the doofuses in the AOC comments saying that voting for both parties would be a "check" or something. I wonder if this is also why so many people voted for abortion rights but then for Trump. If so this really speaks to a lack of civic education in this country, a very surface-level (mis)understanding of things that's like "oh if I just spice it up with variety it'll be less extreme." No! A national abortion ban invalidates any state laws! Putting abortion rights in your state constitution is NOT a check on Trump!!!! (Also like, I can't say I totally agree with Tlaib not endorsing Harris - I'm not sure if that was true of the previous Dem candidates in question, though, I seem to remember her supporting Biden in 2020 and also, wasn't 2016 before she ever got into Congress? where is this person getting their facts - but I get why she didn't, I *understand it. And also, as a native Michigander I'm really tired of people criticizing her as someone who represents her constituency well and looks out for their needs in a way that was extremely NOT true for the Democrats representing that part of Detroit in Congress for a long time, including the guy forced out for sexual misconduct whom she replaced. Also, people who know nothing about the demographics of Detroit being like "well Detroit also has a lot of pro-Israel Jews!" She doesn't represent the entire Detroit area, she represents a part of Detroit that is predominantly black, MENA and South Asian. Also, Jewish voters are no more a monolith on Israel there than they are anywhere else, but they largely don't live in her district and the other reps from the Detroit area have views more in line with the majority of the Democratic Party so! Look at a map people! I'm so tired of hearing from people who've never been anywhere in that state lecture me about a place where I grew up.

AOC on the other hand, has very much been a party woman/team player for years and there's no reason to whine about her except that you are just left-punching, hippie-punching as we used to call it. I think at this point maybe people need to stop thinking of "the squad" as a single political entity. I can't even keep track of who is in it anymore at this point. I remember when it was just AOC, Tlaib, Omar, Pressley - who even then have a lot of variety in their opinions and stances and votes - but now it just seems people add whatever left-wing Dem they want to whine about to it. Wasn't it originally supposed to be specifically left-wing Democratic women of color and then people starting adding men and white people to it?)

i think when you send me asks this long you should have to pay me to publish them.

[synergysilhouette]

Plotting out "Aida" for a Disney animated musical

I want it on record that I'm NOT saying that the original Broadway musical was bad; I just don't think it felt (as it exists) as an animated musical for Disney. Plus the music felt WAY too contemporary; I didn't feel transported like I did with "The Lion King"--kinda weird since it had the same music team as "Aida." And in terms of story, I'm taking both inspiration from the stage musical and the original opera. Thematically speaking, I could see this as a cross between Disney's "Pocahontas" and Dreamworks' "The Prince of Egypt"--heartfelt, emotional, and awe-inspiring. Oh, and spoilers, obviously.

The characters

Aida--For visual references, I used American singer/actress Coco Jones and dancer/singer Normani, as well as Ethiopian women in traditional Ethiopian garb of various ethnic groups (and lemme know if these clothes are inaccurate). I definitely imagine her personality similar to Belle, Pocahontas, and Jasmine: a very intelligent, mature, and kind individual with compassion for others, though I do like the idea that her becoming a slave to Egyptians does fuel a bit of discrimination at first, until she is shown kindness by Amneris and Radamès. I do like the idea that similar to Raya, she has to learn to overcome her discrimination despite times of war. I'd definitely love for orange or yellow to be her main color; I've heard that the yellow part of the Ethiopian flag symbolizes hope, which would be apt for her.

2. Radamès--Visually, I keep picturing a cross between Mena Massoud and Ramses II. I imagine him in terms of personality very similar to Li Shang, so we can finally shed the recent Disney trope of a comedic and/or jaded male lead. I enjoy him living by an honor-bound code, and him being merciful to others even before he develops feelings for Aida. I was gonna omit the Amneris/Radamès/Aida love triangle, but I like the idea of one, especially if it's reciprocated on both sides; Radamès has feelings for Amneris, but he's worried that he doesn't truly know the real her, and surmises that this is due to her royal status, similar to how he must put on a strong front as a military leader. He worries that by marrying her, he'll have to become even more emotionally closed off, and that his relationship with Amneris and others will suffer as a result. IDK how it'd work in Ancient Egyptian society and his status, but I'd love for green to be his main color, like a deep emerald or malachite.

3. Amneris--For visual purposes, I used this collage of 2017's top Arab actresses via Harper's Bazaar, over half of whom are Egyptians. Plus Cleo de Nile (who I think was the first character I ever saw on tv who was Egyptian) is also an aesthetic I'd want her to take inspiration from--intimidating but kind, powerful while vulnerable, beautiful and clever. Originally I planned Amneris to be a bubbly and emotional character akin to Charlotte LeBouf, but I do like the idea of her being similar to Isabela Madrigal, especially since Amneris' incarnation in the musical is similar to Isabela's; she puts on a persona to make others happy and distract from her true self and what she perceives to be flaws. Similar to Aida, she has to overcome her feelings of conquering discrimination, with her friendship with Aida affecting her feelings on the war with the Nubians. I love the idea that she has a pet asp that protects her as well as whispering secrets to her, making her weary of Zoser. I definitely imagine her in black and gold--it's powerful and beautiful, just like her.

4. Zoser--Jafar is an obvious inspiration here, since they're both power-hungry men in power in an Ancient Middle-Eastern civilization. I do like the idea that he has affection and pride in his son, but he's not above forcing him to do his bidding if it REALLY comes t that; it's an "I love you...but I love me more" situation, and not in the empowering, inspiring way. I wouldn't have him poison the pharaoh like in the story, as he has charisma and cunning that allows him to manipulate the pharaoh without having to dispose of him, and this allows him more time to fuel his son's insecurities and make him overly reliant on him when he does become pharaoh. Given that red symbolized disorder in Ancient Egypt (at least form what I've gathered), I'd love to see him embrace a red color palette, especially since so many Disney villains use purple or green. Of course, this would bring him even closer to Jafar (even though in the first "Aladdin" film, Jafar's main color is black with red accents).

The story

Let's just get this out of the way; I wouldn't keep the tragic ending. Even if this wasn't a Disney movie, I wouldn't want the film to end with the two characters dead, and I'm not a fan of the frame story from Broadway. If doing the storybook opening is too European, I'd probably have an opening using hieroglyphics.

In my version of the story, Amneris is more active in military decisions due to being the next pharaoh, and despite Aida's ferocity against the Egyptian warriors, she believes that she's worth more alive than dead and makes Aida her handmaiden. Along with this, Mereb is her brother; it'd have more Disney leads with brothers (and it be prominently featured). Along with this, Zoser recognizes Aida's incredible athleticism and stealth, using her as a spy for him to manipulate the pharaoh, as well as fueling the desire between Amneris and Radamès, promising to release her after a year if she abides by him. He keeps a close eye on her, not letting her know that he has growing suspicions of her being the princess of Nubia. At first, Aida has no issue with this arrangement, given that she has no love or loyalty for any Egyptian, but as she starts to care for some of them, she resists Zoser's demands, but he threatens to harm Radamès and Amneris by poisoning Amneris after her marriage to Radamès and framing him for her murder as a supposed ploy to cause an insurrection, crowning himself as the leader of the Nubians. Aida then submits to his demands. While Aida and Radamès confess their feelings to each other, they respect that their lives have taken them on diverging paths, and they separate. However, during the Nubian rebellion that Aida leads, Radamès joins her and is subsequently arrested. Realizing that he's fallen for Aida, Amneris takes advantage of the situation and fakes his death, allowing him to escape and join Aida and the Nubians in starting a new life while Amneris becomes pharaoh. I'm uncertain if I'd have Zoser die or become imprisoned. I'm sure the fanbase would vote for the former option.

The music

I shall NEVER presume to say I'll ever reach the success or talent that Elton John and Tim Rice have achieved in their lives, nor am I saying my soundtrack would be superior; it's just a custom of my brainstorms/rewrites that I make a tracklist for Disney musicals.

"Spider's Web"--a "Deliver Us"-type song, with the title coming from an Ethiopian proverb I found online ("When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion"). The Nubian captives sing of their hopes and dreams of escaping the Egyptians as well as winning the war, but how the king has lost some of his motivation due to believing his daughter is dead. I imagine this being an ensemble number.

"Sunrise"--A song where Aida says how determined she is to escape the servitude of the Egyptians, especially now that she's found out that her brother is alive and well. As certain as the sun rises, she will rise above her oppressors and be free once more. It starts off somber only to give way to a more energetic sound.

"Cause for Concern"--Zoser's villain song where he convinces Aida to spy on the pharaoh for him and bring Amneris and Radamès together, bringing up that she has no love for any Egyptian and helping him with his plans would someday benefit her. I imagine it as a slow and sinister song, fitting how he slowly convinces Aida that it's better to work for him than against him.

"Captive"--an ironically-named title focusing on Radamès' love for Aida and how he feels a slave to it, and how he recognizes that she feels the same, but wonders if it's purely a matter of proximity; would she love him if she wasn't a slave to his masters? Would she be with him if she was allowed to leave Egypt at any time? Along with this, Amneris sings of how she has fallen for Radamès, and she wonders how being a prisoner of love is just as bad as being a prisoner to the expectations thrust upon her as a princess.

"Dreaming of the Stars"--a father/son duet between Radamès and Zoser about how Zoser dreams of Radamès becoming pharaoh and ruling Egypt, but Radamès, due to his wisdom, foretells his father that his ambition will lead to his downfall. I suppose you could see it as a cross between "Mother Knows Best" (and the reprise) and "At All Costs."

"Silence of my Heart"--essentially an "If I Never Knew You"-type song where Radamès is imprisoned and sings to the wind, which carries his voice to Aida, and she sings back to him as she considers fleeing with the Nubians or going to rescue him and risking being caught. The title comes from the idea that their hearts skip a beat, waiting for the wind to carry their messages to each other and to hear back from their love.

"The Dawn"--I imagine that a good deal of this song is pretty much a reprise of the first two songs, and how everyone looks to the sunrise to see what the future may hold for their destiny.

Lemme know what you think! Would you watch a film like this? Lemme know if you have an questions!

[reasoningdaily]

On a recent episode of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, Dominican-Puerto Rican reality TV star Erica Mena screamed “You monkey, you blue monkey” to Jamaican dancehall singer, songwriter, and actor Spice. The animalized anti-Black slur never seems too far from the lips of racially ambiguous, mestiza, mixed-race, and other non-Black Latinas who find success ironically because of Black women. Many people of alleged color use their proximity to Blackness as a ruse to gain success while harboring anti-Black values. 

This isn’t the first time we have seen non-Black Latinas, who may claim Afro-Latinidad at convenience, call dark-skinned unambiguously Black women an anti-Black slur in a public forum. It’s a signature and age-old move. In 2015, Mena herself reportedly called club promoters “Black monkeys” after not showing up to a scheduled nightclub appearance. Similarly, in 2019, self-professed Afro-Latina Evelyn Lozada did something similar to her Basketball Wives castmate, athlete Ogom “OG” Chijindu, using a monkey GIF to describe her on Instagram and repeatedly referring negatively to her looks.

In many of these public displays of anti-Blackness, the conflict is centered on a Black man “picking” the unambiguously Black woman over the so-called “exotic” non-Black woman. These are common tactics that I and many other unambiguous Black women have experienced at the hands of non-Black Latinas, including mestizas and light-skinned, racially ambiguous, self-proclaimed Afro-Latinas. And many of these non-Black Latinas use the categorization of Afrolatinidad as a get-out-of-jail card when they co-opt Blackness.

“

"Many people of alleged color use their proximity to Blackness as a ruse to gain success while fostering anti-Black values. "

dash harris

”

In 2019,Love and Hip Hop cast member Cyn Santana appeared on Angela Yee's Lip Service podcast controversially saying she prefers Black men and Black men prefer Latina women. “Y’all can keep the Puerto Rican men. I’m good,” she said, assuming she was referring to non-Black Puerto Rican men. She added: “I do Black guys all day. Black men cater to us Spanish [sic: Latina] girls especially.” When Yee suggested she would “get in trouble with the Black girls,” Santana, a mestiza of mixed Dominican and Salvadoran descent, said, “I didn’t mean it like that, but Black girls gonna take it personal and be like, uh-uh,” inserting just enough mockery to ensure the audience that her worldview is steeped in anti-Black tropes. 

Even more to that point of wide-spread misogynoir stereotyping, Santana later apologized on the talk show The Real, saying she “irresponsibly repeated something that I heard my entire life.” I believe her. I've long seen and heard this messaging in Latine communities. The truth Santana pointed to cannot be glossed over. These women date and procreate with Black men and, in turn, raise Black children, as Mena is doing, and I wonder how they treat those children through their lens of depreciating Blackness. One way is by treating them as a shield to claim they are not anti-Black.

“

"In many of these public displays of anti-Blackness, the conflict is centered on a Black man “picking” the unambiguously Black woman over the so-called “exotic” non-Black woman."

dash harris

”

This is tied to the misogynoir phenomena of Black men who put non-Black women on pedestals, prizing, pursuing, and “preferring” non-Black Latinas and white women and even defending them when they do dehumanize Black women in public media forums. This “preference” cannot be divorced from its anti-Black power dynamics and its cishetero white-centering patriarchy that Black men, among people in general, have been indoctrinated under and in turn perpetuate and harm Black women with. Black women seem to be where their targets intersect and lock in as their punching bag. 

Mena’s chagrin, and subsequent table-flipping that caused the melee, was because Safaree, a rapper and Mena’s ex-husband and father to her children, “chose” to care more about a woman who indeed is not his wife nor his children’s mother. But what really got Mena to reveal herself was that it was a dark-skinned Black woman, someone who in her eyes was undeserving of the adoration and worship she, a non-Black woman, is entitled to, so she had been taught. This subverted social order infraction could not go by Mena without a slur to bring Black women back to the intended subalterned place. She wanted the guarantee of preference that she was promised.

“

"Non-Black women like her have been promised their whole lives that they deserve love and respect, withheld from Black women and over Black women in favor of women who look like her."

dash harris

”

It is a privileged position where Mena is most comfortable because she believes in the zero-sum game of anti-Black hierarchy. This hierarchy keeps her lights on. Mena’s social currency rides in her non-Blackness and her proximity to whiteness relative to Black women. Non-Black women like her have been promised their whole lives that they deserve love and respect, withheld from Black women and over Black women in favor of women who look like her. She clamors for and is enabled by the male gaze and, furthermore, is emboldened and protected by Black men who seek refuge from their own internalized anti-Blackness in the arms of women “with less baggage and attitude” than “the Black girls.” But, as the routine racialized aggressions these women create show, even this is a myth. Together, the bond of Black men who “prefer” non-Black women and non-Black women who revel this preference replicates white pathology and notions that Black women should remain subjugated under them both. 

So many non-Black Latinas, including mestizas, mixed-race, and racially ambiguous women, have launched and sustained their careers from Black media and specifically because of Black women, like Mona Scott-Young, the creator of the Love and Hip-Hop franchise, and Shaunie O’Neal, creator of Basketball Wives. Black media gives them access into Black spaces by their “POC” proximity for them to inevitably expose their anti-Blackness, because you can only hide your ideologies for so long. Now many are calling for Mena to finally be fired from the TV series. 

“

"Unambiguously Black women, whether Latina or not, are racialized as Black wherever we go and do not have the escape-hatch of racial ambiguity that other non-Black Afro-Latinas do."

dash harris

”

Recently, reality TV star Joseline Hernandez called out her College Hill classmate Amber Rose for building her career from Black media but “catering to white people.” Hernandez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, identifies as a Black woman and not Afro-Latina, a distinction that seems to be even more necessary with each passing day. Unambiguously Black women, whether Latina or not, are racialized as Black wherever we go and do not have the escape-hatch of racial ambiguity that other non-Black Afro-Latinas do. 

Hemispherically, Black women are the butts of “jokes” for non-Black, mixed-race, bi-racial, and racially ambiguous women. In 2016, Geisha Montes de Oca (who was 2008's Miss World Dominican Republic) mocked Black Dominican singer Amara La Negra on a popular variety show by wearing an Afro wig, butt pads, and blackface. In 2013, Black Brazilian actor Nayara Justino was dethroned from her title of Miss Globaleza carnival queen in favor of a light-skinned bi-racial woman after public outcry of Justino being “too Black.” She was also subjected to violent anti-Black attacks online that negatively impacted her health.

These viral reality TV moments unveil how anti-Blackness and misogyny are like a rite of passage for many non-Black Latinas. And these are only the recorded examples. As Santana noted on The Real, oftentimes, these are the messages non-Black Latinas were raised with and didn’t question or resist because they benefited from them. She noted that when she made her own viral anti-Black comments she was in her early 20s and that now, “27 with a son,” she knows better. But does age and motherhood disentangle anti-Blackness from someone’s core? It does not. Mena and Lozado are proof-positive it does not, because it takes a process of birthing yourself anew to address and eradicate this structural ill.

[boreal-sea]

went to that person you were arguing with earliers blog, saw i already had them blocked and quickly realized why when i saw they had reblogged something saying that black women shouldnt be supporting MENA men and then just outright says MENA people in general. i think telling people not to support them during this time, an ongoing genocide, is pretty fucking bad.

Eugh, gross. Racist on top of being transphobic. What a winner.

[keyki421]

I wanna point out how black men are basically okay with racial slurs, if the slur is coming from an attractive woman. They literally are okay with a white woman calling them the N word, as long as that woman looks good.

Black men are still lusting after Erica Mena, even though she just called a black woman a monkey. Black men have this ideal that they are the exception. When they really aren't. Women like Erica Mena like the stereotype. They like the BBC. When they are angry though, they will call you every single racial slur they can think of.

Now the even more crazy thing is Erica Mena using racial slurs, when she has black children. I can only imagine the therapy her children are going to need, basically growing up with a mother who hates their skin.

Also no one wants to talk about how Spice was accurate. Erica's oldest son truly doesn't want anything to do with her and I truly get it. This boy has disowned her and I honestly would do the same if she was my mother.

[cyarsk52-20]

I hate when people just say anything in arguments because you can say a lot about Amara La Negra, but what you cannot say is that she is ugly lol. But that’s colorism for ya! #LHHMIA

People like Flo aren’t different from the Evelyn Lozada or the Erica mena Of the world. They have sex with our black men, have black children, profit from our black culture, but have no respect for black women . In this case, is this another racist light skin being hateful and nasty towards a dark skinned black woman . If she was white, she will have canceled right now and network will have no other choice but to fire her because if they don’t , black people will never watch the network again and who can blame them ? Flo needs to go.

[90363462]

he even said on a song with Sza “Whipped and chained you like american slaves” so kendrick saying he hyoersexualizes black women with a nympho fetish on meet the grahams is POWERFUL. Drake keep disrespecting black american people and the plight.. he keeps discrediting and disrespecting us. his mother is WHITE!!! he was raised as a white kid! And you wonder why the hate towards Aubrey is well deserved

“Drake isn’t a racist or racially insensitive, his father is black! His friends are black! How can he be a racist or insensitive if he has someone who is black?”

The same way that:

a white woman can have a black husband and still be accused of racial discrimination, microaggressions and other forms of discrimination

Erica mena can have a black husband, black children and still refer to black peoples as monkeys and nappy headed

Five black police officers of the Memphis Police Department, can severely beat Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop, and Nichols dies of his injuries days later because of their actions last year

and someone like Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “ we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal” and yet was one of the few presidents who if they weren’t opposed to slavery in America, they were the slave owners. (Clearly when he was saying, “all men are created equal” , he was not referring to Black people.)

One must not be a white person to be criticized for being racist or racially insensitive.

[misfitwashere]

July 25, 2024 

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 26

Momentum continues to build behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, and the national narrative as a whole has shifted. 

Democrats appear to be generating significant enthusiasm among younger Americans. Yesterday, for the first time in their history, the March for Our Lives organization endorsed a presidential candidate: Kamala Harris. Students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, organized March for Our Lives after the shooting there in 2018. Executive director Natalie Fall said that the organization “will work to mobilize young people across the country to support Vice President Harris and other down-ballot candidates, with a particular focus on the states and races where we can make up the margin of victory—in Arizona, New York, Michigan, and Florida.” 

Andrea Hailey of Vote.org announced that in the 48 hours after President Biden said he would not accept the Democratic nomination, nearly 40,000 people registered to vote. That meant a daily increase in new registrations of almost 700%.

People are turning out for Harris in impressive numbers. In the hours after she launched her campaign, Win With Black Women rallied 44,000 Black women on Zoom and raised $1.6 million. On Monday, around 20,000 Black men rallied to raise $1.2 million. Tonight, challenged to “answer the call,” 164,000 white women joined an event that “broke Zoom” and raised more than $2 million and tens of thousands of new volunteers. 

Another significant endorsement for Harris came yesterday from Geoff Duncan, the Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia, who wrote on social media: “I’m committed to beating Donald Trump. The only vehicle left for me to do that with is the Democratic Party. If that requires me to vote for, speak for, or endorse [Kamala Harris] then count me in!” Duncan’s public announcement offers permission for other Georgia Republicans to make a similar shift. In 1964, South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond similarly paved the way for southern Democrats to vote for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

Harris’s appearances are generating such enthusiasm from audiences that when she delivered the keynote address this morning at the convention of the American Federation of Teachers in Houston, Texas, the applause delayed her ability to begin. After a speech defending education and calling out the cuts to it in Project 2025, Harris ended by demonstrating that after decades of Democrats being accused of being anti-American, Trump’s denigration of the country has enabled the party to claim the position of being America’s defenders. 

“When we vote, we make our voices heard,” Harris said. “So today, I ask you, AFT, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it? And when we fight, we win! God bless you and God bless the United States of America.” 

Today the Commerce Department reported that economic growth in the second quarter was higher than expected, coming in at 2.8%, thanks to higher spending driven by higher wages. The country’s changing momentum is showing in media stories hyping the booming economy Biden’s team tried for years to get traction on. “Full Employment is Joe Biden’s True Legacy” was the title of a story by Zachary Carter that appeared yesterday in Slate; CNN responded to today’s good economic news with an article by Bryan Mena titled: “The US economy is pulling off something historic.”

With Harris appearing to have sewn up the nomination, the question has turned to her vice presidential pick. That question is fueling the sense of excitement as potential choices are in front of cameras and on social media advocating Democratic positions and defending the United States from Trump’s denigration. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro listed the economic gains of the past years, and said: “Trump, you’ve got to stop sh*t talking America. We’ve got to start standing tall and being patriotic and showing how much we love this amazing nation.”

The vice presidential hopefuls appear to be having some fun with showcasing their personalities, as Minnesota governor Tim Walz did in his video from the Minnesota State Fair where he and his daughter went on an extreme ride. So are social media users who have dug up old videos of, for example, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explaining how he would pilot a small starfighter that had lost its auxiliary shields, or Arizona senator Mark Kelly’s identical twin brother Scott pranking a fellow astronaut on the Space Station with a gorilla suit Mark smuggled on board. 

That sense of fun is an enormous relief after years of political weight, and it has spilled over into making fun of the Republican ticket, most notably with a false story that vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance wrote about—and I cannot believe I am typing this—having sex with a couch. The story is stupid, but worse are the denials of it, which have spread the story into populations that otherwise would likely not have seen it. 

Just two weeks ago, Vance appeared to be the leader of the next generation of extremist MAGA Republicans, but now that calculation seems to have been hasty. Vance is a staunch opponent of abortion—the key issue in 2024—and he has been vocal in his disdain of women who have not given birth, saying in 2021, for example, that the U.S. was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” He went on to say that people who don’t have children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country. 

Republican commentator Meghan McCain noted that Vance’s “comments are activating women across all sides, including my most conservative Trump supporting friends. These comments have caused real pain and are just innately unchristian.” Actor Jennifer Aniston, who tends to stay out of politics, posted: “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States.” Vance had called out Harris by name in those 2021 comments, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff took to social media to defend Harris from Vance’s attacks on her as “childless,” calling her “a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.” Harris’s stepdaughter chimed in: “I love my three parents.”

Vance also ties the Republican ticket firmly to Project 2025. The Trump camp has worked to distance itself from Project 2025—not convincingly, since the two are obviously closely tied, but it turns out that Vance wrote the introduction for a forthcoming book by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, who was the lead author of Project 2025. The book appears to popularize that plan, right down to its endorsement of a “Second American Revolution,” and according to the book deal report, proceeds from the book will go to the Heritage Foundation “and aligned nonprofits.” 

Now Vance’s words praising Project 2025 will be in print, just in time for the election. Yesterday, Trump posted: “I have nothing to do with, and know nothing about, Project 25 [sic]. The fact that I do is merely disinformation put out by the Radical Left Democrat Thugs. Do not believe them!” 

Trump is clearly aware of, and concerned about, the changing narrative. This morning, he called in to Fox & Friends, saying, “We don’t need the votes. I have so many votes. I’m in Florida now…and every house has a Trump-Vance sign on it. Every single house…. It’s amazing the spirit…. This election has more spirit than I’ve ever seen ever before.” Tonight the Trump campaign proved their worry by backing out of debates with Harris, saying debates can’t be scheduled until she is the official nominee, although Biden was not the official nominee when they met in June. 

The larger narrative shift has affected the media approach to Trump, who is accustomed to shaping perceptions as he wishes. Now, 12 days after the mass shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, there is increasing media attention to the fact that there has still been no medical report on Trump’s injuries, although he wore a large bandage on his ear at the Republican National Convention and said at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

Yesterday, FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress that it is not clear whether Trump was “grazed” by a bullet or by shrapnel, words that former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance called “FBI speak for, ‘it’s unlikely it was a bullet.’” 

CNN chief medical consultant Dr. Sanjay Gupta noted last week that the people need a real medical evaluation of Trump’s injuries, explaining that “gunshot blasts near the head can cause injuries that aren’t immediately noticeable, such as bleeding in or on the brain, damage to the inner ear or even psychological trauma.” But, as Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memohas noted, much of the press has kept mum about the story. 

Media outlets have reported Wray’s testimony, though, and in a social media post today, Trump called on Wray, whom he appointed to head the FBI, to resign from his post for “LYING TO CONGRESS.” Tonight, he reiterated that “it was…a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard.” 

Perhaps eager to get back to their districts, House Republicans canceled their expected votes on appropriations bills scheduled for next week and left town today for their August recess. The House will not reconvene until early September. The government’s fiscal year 2025 begins on October 1.

—

[icehockeytennisfilmsandmusic]

this ya'll... experimental writing.. kind of like an unpublished MOMA entry you guys !!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i did not get to cohabit or marry young... i had to go to work immediately from leaving my lower middle class immediate family household.. i dated.. but could not initiate ... or be myself.. fully.. i never saw my type.. they (men and women).. in any english west.. especially north america.. come off overly strange.. what fucking let downs.. eh.. whatever is out and about or "loudest" i mena... like .. in my imagination... in my "dream world".. i get to soon do a "casting call" ... "an international marriage... or bestie... friend... casting call.. a search warrant.."... "a party search"... for me to marry a lower-upper middle class... 16-18.. MAYBE 20 something (highly doubt it) virgin... a guy that like me was abused.. in sports and scholastics.. and just wants a wife-sister-mother-lifecoach-nurturer-facilitator ... i stopped looking for love when i was a teen.. early 20's because of so much financial / political pressure / immediate family abuse... I hate the english west.. i always have.. i always will... the amount of liars.. inefficiency... i don't see people asking for equality.. they ask to thump my white or mostly white.. people .. and of course.. my mum being a total fucking loser... completely ruining my life.. lying to people on the phone.. my brother being a pissant... a pussy.. etc. i'm into "neo nazis" but from money... i'm not from poor working class.. i'm from lower middle class... i'm not from hoity toity upper middle class... i'm from like.. an "accountant's salary"... i don't think black girls are hotter than me.. i don't think white girls are hotter than me... i think steffi graf and anna kournikova are hotter than me.. i'm runner up.. i'm definitely (on keto.. my normal straight size.. like per usual) hotter than most pro tennis players.. of ANY race etc. i think a lot of women are skinny - fat.. no lean muscle tone.. and they have no jawline.. no "cute" .. "x" factor.. etc. - kelley

[rebeleden]

Op-Ed: Watching Racially Ambiguous People Disparage Black Women While Raising Black Children Is Exhausting | Essence

CC RACIST COLORIST LATINAS

THEY GET THE SAME BLACK MEN

CC RABID MISOGYNOIR AND BLACK FEMICIDE

[apris1992]

I'll never forget Erica telling Cyn and Jonathan that's she's sorry the black cast and herself were "too black" for them, just to call Spice a blue monkey and make monkey noises in the latest episode of LHHATL.

It's lol.

People like Erica Mena trip me out. You fuck/date black men and women, have black kids, hang around black people but the minute a dark skinned black woman makes you mad (and I specify this b/c I don't think she would've said this shit if Spice wasn't dark skinned) you wanna resort to anti-blackness and colorism. Erica has a slick ass mouth so for her to stoop that low tells you everything u need to know.

She's been on this show for over a decade and not ounce of growth has taken place. Erica needs a damn therapist.

Spice didn't tell one lie when she said Safaree is her karma.

[mithliya]

Hello Mena! I was hoping if you can maybe help me with confusion about my ethnicity. I am from post-ussr country and so interact in english spaces less and not sure about few things. I am mixed ethnicity, various slavic and central asian ethnicity. But I am not half and half, rather from what I learned about my family tree I am a bit more then 1/3 central asian. But, as you can imagine, with woc women marrying into men of dominant culture, I was able to find only very little of my asian female ancestors. I mostly seen myself as white, but the genes of my asian female ancestors show on my face. I did not know about any of these when I was teen, I was just sure I am 'ugly'. I spend great deal of time trying to make myself 'pretty', which was kinda white washing myself. If I bleach my hair, shave my eyebrows, avoid sun like plague and paint my face I can be quite white passing, just with weird nose and small and dark eyes and wide face. I also struggled with people being very prejudiced towards me through my whole life, like they start right away acting as if I'm stupid and a bit slow. I have been wondering for my whole life if maybe I am weird or slow indeed in a ways I am not aware. I would never know if that is because of my face or not. But when I moved to less white region, it has been long time and no one acted towards me that dismissive. I also stopped worrying about my nose and keeping skin as white as possible, bc I don't stick out so much anymore. Hairdressers sometimes still try to convince me to bleach my hear, because I would look good, but I reject it. The thing is, if I talk about these in english speaking places while only mentioning my location, women (I suppose mostly white, who do that) try to convince me I am just a bit mentally unwell, imagined prejudice where it did not happen, obsess over my looks etc. If I mention my ethnic compound, they revert to blanket validation, which is also weird to me, bc it's so overt and suddenly they take me seriously. When they do it, I honestly feel like impostor. Or I guess before that they imagined slavic blonde like stereotypically shown? (It's actually wrong stereotype, but it's another topic.) My question is, I don't really I can call myself woc, I would be imposing on woc with actual problems. If I was say half and half with equal connection to both cultures, it would be another matter. But I also treasure my asian ancestry and what I could find of it, the genes of my asian grandmothers are seen in my face, and I think it is not fair to them if I don't mention that. Maybe you have some advice on that, on how can I indicate my ancestry better without imposing on others who deal with actual oppression unlike me? Sorry it turned out a bit long.

hi anon!! first of all, i feel like you’re questioning your perception & intelligence and just so you know, you don’t seem stupid at all to me. at least based on this message, you seem to be an introspective and well-spoken woman, albeit with clear confidence issues.

in terms of how you can accurately describe your ancestry, i’m also mixed but not 50/50 as it is intergenerational, so i understand how it can be difficult to describe ur experiences. i simply state im mixed & if ppl assume it means i’m half black and half MENA, i correct them and state that is inaccurate to my reality. you could say the same, basically calling urself mixed white + central asian or just mixed. even the term biracial does not necessarily mean half & half although some people assume that to be the case, so u could use that too. u could even say ur white-passing biracial (although im not sure if white-passing describes u accurately? since u said u feel like u look more similar to central asians when u live among them). u could also say ur white with asian ancestry if u feel like being white defines ur experiences more prominently