#construction of whiteness

[miriam-heddy]

The Liminality of Whiteness and Writing About Mexican American Characters (in 911 or elsewhere).

Seeing some odd claims being made in 911 fandom about racism, children of immigrants, and passing.

If you’re interested in that, there’s a whole area of scholarship on the liminality of whiteness in America. And none of it means that you can’t be both subjected to racism and commit acts of racism at the same time! One way white people maintain power is by forcing people to assimilate into whiteness at the expense of their own culture (ie, It’s us or them) by taking sides with white supremacy without being granted full access to power.

My own connection to this comes from the perspective of looking at Jewish identity and media, and growing up in a Spanish, German, English speaking family.

These are just a couple of interesting reads, not a comprehensive bibliography.

Edited to Add: @chuuzmii asked for clarification. So I tl;dr’d some more, cause it’s the hiatus and it’s that or read buddie.

@chuuzmii There’s some good stuff out there in video form. There’s a good video here: https://youtu.be/CVxAlmAPHec that’s part of the National Museum of African America History and Culture that explains how racial categories shifted over time, from first identifying family group to the idea that skin color and/or birth nation mattered.

“Liminality” just means something exists in a space between places we know. Liminal Space is called “Transitional” because people can move Through the Between to go Here or There. And now I sound like Dr Seuss (“I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere. I do so like green eggs and ham!”)

Immigrants and children of immigrants (like Ryan Guzman) often find they live in multiple spaces. Ryan G said, “My mom is from Sacramento, California, and she's a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl. She's a whitey. Unfortunately, I don't look as Latin as I am.”

But how does Latin look?

To some, his skin tone makes him white. He has some white privilege. If he dresses up and speaks English, he probably won’t be followed around a store. But if he speaks Spanish and hangs out with other Mexican Americans (some with darker skin, like his dad), he might lose that. On TV crime shows, Latinx men together are often cast as bad guys.

Because he and his wife aren’t seen as 100% white, he wrongly thought they could use a mean word that’s been reclaimed by Black ppl yet is still used by some white ppl to mean “less than white/human/me.” That’s not okay. But ppl can learn. Being able to pass doesn’t mean you want to do so. And sometimes, people fck up and then grow, hopefully without hurting anyone too badly for them to forgive.

[kizzer55555]

Core Gems

So when a ghost becomes injured, they have a last ditch defense where they retreat into their core. And I mean, injured badly where their body is rip apart to the point they can’t hold a solid form anymore. And they basically go into a hibernation state until they are strong enough to form again.

Ellie, Danny, and Dan are all injured in a final battle against the GIW. The organization was destroyed and the ghosts were safe but the halfas ended up being so injured that they reverted to core form and then went to sleep for a bit. When they woke up, they were still weak but at least recovered enough to gain consciousness. And realize…they are in some kind of auction…in the middle of a heist. It appeared that two furries (one in a bat costume and one in a cat costume) were ducking it out. And they…they were a necklace. All three of them had been turned into a necklace with their cores as gems accompanied by sapphires, pearls, and opals. And frankly gorgeous craftsmanship as the metal was crafted around their cores as if to cradle them and the other gems.

Unfortunately, they were too weak to take a form properly, they could still feel the strain on their bodies. But at least they could still communicate through their auras. Then the cat lady punched a hole in the glass container surrounding them and grabbed their necklace.

However, the bat grabbed the other end and it resulted in a sort of tug-a-war. Meanwhile, Danny, Ellie, and Dan were having a back and form commentary on the situation and what they should do. Completely unheard by the other party.

In the corner of their eye, the three halfas finally noticed a third contender. Some kind of clown who was…hold on…holding a gun?! And it was pointed straight at the two fighting furies who had yet to notice him. The ghosts’ protective instincts went into overdrive and they frantically tried to shout, yell, move. Just do something to warn the two but their cries fell on deaf ears. All they succeeded in doing was faintly glow which immediatly caught the attention of the fighting duo. The two turned to look at the strange necklace but right at that moment, the clown fired and a gunshot rang throughout the auction room. Having no other options, Danny and the others poured every ounce of ectoplasm they had to try and phaseshift, making the two furries intangible as the bullets passed right through them, but in their shock, the two jumped away in opposite directions and accidentally ripped the necklace apart. Gems and pearls went flying and the three cores bounced along the ground.

Luckily, the two finally noticed the clown and went to deal with him and his minions who had appeared. Seemingly putting their fight on hold and forming a temporary truce. The three halfas could only watch as the battle finally wound down, ending with the cops barging into the place and arresting the clown and his grunts, the cat managing to escape with half the scattered gems and pearls from the broken necklace along with a few other jewelry pieces (none of their cores though) and the bat leaving through a skylight.

The auction continued and in the end, despite being broken, their necklace seemed to have caught someone’s interest. A man named Bruce Wayne bought up every piece of the shattered jewelry wear. The auctioneers appeared relived that the item managed to sell in the end and gratefully gave it to him.

Bruce had no idea what happened at the auction, but he could have sworn that some of the gems faintly glowed right before he and Selina were shot. If the necklace was some sort of magical item, then he needed to understand exactly what has been brought to Gotham. It was unfortunate that Selena had taken some parts of the necklace but he utilized his vast wealth to make sure all the other parts ended in his possession. Now he would take them back to the mansion for examination.

[arc-hus]

Modulightor Building, New York City - Paul Rudolph

[pointandshooter]

photo: David Castenson

[streetmatt]

Construction site, composition.

By Matti Merilaid.

[blorbocedes]

when people try to argue that feminism is unnecessary, western import for bourgeoise women, that the wage gap doesn't exist, that civilisations are built solely by men in construction doing hard labour while the women are at home, show them the impoverished female bricklayers of India, who are 49% of the second largest industry (after agriculture) of 40 million constructors, and get paid less for equal work ($7/day for men, $4/day for women) because of gender discrimination and exploited due to being poor, illiterate, debt trapped, facing gender based setbacks (not being promoted to masonry or carpentry like men) and being unaware of their union rights

this work in general is exploitative, getting paid pennies on the dollar while corporations that build their mega complexes rake in millions, hazardous to health, no safety equipment, regulations, breathing in fine dust and construction pollution for both men and women. but women in particular face gender based discrimination such as getting paid a lower raw wage and lack of opportunities to get promoted from this heavy duty scaffolding work, in fact they often do more work than the men but aren't respected by their male peers. and the idea that only men historically have done hard labour, built civilisations is a false myth that erases the plight of the millions of women in the Global South.

[its-stimsca]

25 year old man tries to eat a brick with glue on it stimboard

🧱 🍽️ 🧱

🍽️ 🧱 🍽️

🧱 🍽️ 🧱

[archiveofaffinities]

Gustav Eiffel, Eiffel Tower, Under Construction, 1889, Paris, France, Photo Credit: Delpire

[white-trash-fl]

Boss

[d469son-daddy469son-bw2]

[freshbeeth]

fuck it. off the hook songs + irl equivalents playlist

(link in title, tracklist below cut)

OtH first, IRL second

i will NOT be accepting constructive criticism

[divorceblogger]

louis strengthening his access to and reasserting his masculinity by multiplying his financial assets + claudia gaining access to womanhood by attaining financial independence so that she’s able to move through the world without being dependant on her male companion

[spockandawe]

It's time! for! 2ha!!!!!!! I've had 'the husky and his white cat shizun' on my radar as a bookbinding project basically from the very start, back when I thought it was impossible that any of these danmei novels would ever be licensed for english translations. But this book is so long, and besides, the translation wasn't complete, so it went onto the backest of back burners. Until now! So, the book has been licensed. It's started releasing! As usual, please support these authors, they have a passionate english-speaking fanbase, and I very much want them to enjoy that success in a practical sense and not just an abstract one. And I also want more of these novels translated, haha. But the nature of licensing means I've also gotten a lot more interested in preserving prior translations in formats that can't casually be yoinked from the internet.

Now, this is a big novel. This was 1.1 million words. The stack of pressed text quarto blocks was over 15 inches, and once I added covers (very thick, for reasons I'm about to cover) and boxes, this thing was 22 inches long. Oh my god. This sustained effort naturally overlapped with an international trip and two crucially Important work presentations. I almost died. I had to split it into multiple boxes because I wasn't sure I could laminate boards thick enough to support so much weight at so much length and still cut it with any precision, lmao

And those covers? I took inspiration from notebooks I've sent with cover flaps like these, and also decided to see if I could incorporate the strip magnets I bought for peller box experiments and barely used. The downside that didn't make itself apparent until late in the construction process was that laminating boards to match this depth made the covers REAL thick, and difficult to cover with a crisp finish. Duo bookcloth can get wrinkly and fragile when it's wet, so it didn't entirely take me by surprise, but it's something I'll be accounting for next time I try this construction!

I tried to stick to a black and blue and silver color scheme, because it matches the book, but I also accepted some gold highlights on the endpapers. The duo bookcloth tends to photograph with a bit more brown in the color shift than I see in person, but I think it plays out well in person or in photos! The endpapers make for a nice striking pop when the book opens and don't blend into the cover fabric, which was something I definitely wanted to avoid.

And, speaking of thematically appropriate, I found this image for chapter headers that was almost perfect, but the wrong kind of flowers. So I did change those to haitang blosoms, haha. That happened early in the typesetting process, but I did also have that on my mind as I worked out decorations for the boxes! Mostly, I just titled what book of the novel it was on the top and left it there, but the very last detail I added was a pair of foil flowers done in pink and silver, on the outside edges of the boxes for book 1 and the extras. I finished that last night and then went to bed SO excited to take pictures in the morning. I really had an incredible time with this book, and the whole adventure reminded me just how much I love 2ha. I'm so happy I did this, I really had just an incredible time!!!!!

[arc-hus]

Study Pavilion, Braunschweig, Germany - Gustav Düsing + Max Hacke

[pointandshooter]

photo: David Castenson

[cannibalgender]

I’ve had some time to marinate on FH:JY and while I certainly enjoyed a lot of aspects I found the themes of the season to be very…impotent? And I think it has to do with the world building and the mechanics of DnD.

Like, if the theme of the season is rage and how to express it in a healthy manner or allow it to totally overwhelm you, it simply does not gel with the fact that canonically all of the Bad Kids are being explicitly trained to “impose their will on the world through violence”, to quote Aguefort himself.

It’s a DnD game, largely conflicts will be resolved through combat. Which is why we can get the Bad Kids saying things like “I don’t need vengeance, I don’t need justice” in roleplay scenes, and then immediately switching into ‘combat mode’, where, in a season SUPPOSEDLY about rage getting away from you, Riz can say ‘cut off his head so he won’t be Revivified’ about another teenager, and there will be no story consequences.

Because in roleplay scenes it’s very easy to insist you do not need the blade of Ankarna, but vengeance isn’t really about your family or your friends or the people who’ve hurt you who you love. It’s about the people you hate. Your enemies. And DnD demands that enemies be killed.

The story felt unfulfilling because by the time the Bad Kids rejected Ankarna’s justice they’d already used it. Hell, they wound up revivifying the Rat Grinders but explicitly skipping over Kipperlilly. Was that vengeance? Was that justice?

And Lucy Frostblade! She didn’t express any emotions about her killers, her friends. Did the Bad Kids enact justice on her behalf? How did she feel about it? Was it just, in her eyes?

This rant is getting too long but it bothers me how Kipperlilly’s rage and violence is considered “wrong” and “bad” and she’s considered a disgrace to Aguefort when the school is EXPLICITLY FOR making children into violent outlaws. You’re telling me Arthur Aguefort wouldn’t find it hilarious that she threatened someone’s grave with a backhoe to get a good grade? Come on.