#latino james supremacy

[ecstarry]

do you have any headcanons about latino james you can share?

omgg thank u so much for asking <33

i think he's a naturaaal at dancing, that man can dance quebradita like nothing, i also think he was a chambelan on EVERYONE'S quinces and did it HAPPILY, he loved going to the dance lessons to learn the choreo and would absolutely kill it during the presentation

during the school's kermese james was the guy that always ended up with the most wedding rings at the marriage license stand ajsbdfjhsdf for YEARS regulus refused, until james' senior year where he begged Reg and he finally agreed but tbh reg was going to say yes anyway ajhsdbajhsdb

i also think he would cry to reik and camila songs ajshdbajsd and tbh to me if we are going the mexican route they would beee from guadalajara HE'S TOO NICE TO BE FROM MEXICO CITY AND IDC but they have a beach house in La Paz, Baja California <33

[crimsonlovebartylus]

no but imagine, during a spin the bottle game - it lands on Lily, and James hovers over her with his chain brushing her lips as he grip her chin and tilts her head back and leans forward, lips barely touching and whispers, "te puedo besar lily?"

yeah Lily at that moment she was fucked.

[minomoimoi]

This is so James Potter Coded

[xsadbambi]

6 year old James and his first lost baby teeth (Euphemia took a picture)

[givemearmstopraywith]

yo! I’ve seen some of your posts around, so I figured I’d come to the source. I’ve been hesitant to engage with liberation theology as my journey moving away from of the evangelical faith I was raised in still feels recent, amorphous and short (I’m still in undergrad). I’m wondering how you’d present liberation theology to someone who’s wary but willing to engage with theology after a couple years of attempted cold turkey, but really interested in gaining consciousness of white supremacy in the way they might generalize the Christianity they reject

liberation theology is at its core not white theology. it's inceptors are all latino. its also catholic. i find it as antithical to evangelical christianity as you can get without actually going outside of christianity. evangelicalism is inherently capitalistic and protestant. liberation theology deeply marxist. it is the lived, rather than theoretical, preference for the poor and marginalized.

but liberation theology is hard. it's hard to live and it's hard to practice. it requires an exteriority that feels dangerous and vulnerable. it is vulnerable. liberation theology means liberation for everyone: not only those we like and can empathize with, but also those we do not like. our oppressors, our tormentors, our abusers. it is recognizing how everyone is in their own secret bondage and knowing that where human justice falls short, God's justice is eternal, infernal, and beautiful. it's generous. the world is not.

liberation theology also asserts the divine goodness of God, because a God who loves us is also a God who will liberate us. this is the whole thread that runs through the story of christianity when it is stripped of institutionalized bigotry and dogma. God's story is a love story. he is trying to break the chains we make for ourselves. the chains we are forced to wear by others.

my general primer for intro to liberation theology is gustavo guiterrez, leonardo boff (both latino liberation theologians, the father of the field), and james cone (black theology). also marcella althaus-reid and carter heyward (queer and indecent theology), naim ateek (palestinian liberation theology), and m shawn copeland (womanist, or black feminist, liberation theology). this isnt comprehensive, but they are the liberation theologians i've read and loved, as a person who felt disconnected from my faith after interactions with the evangelical church, when i was trying to find my way back to God just after i finished undergrad.

i will also add, you mentioned you're still in undergrad. you have God's whole messy eternity ahead of you to find him. he wants you: if you want him, he's waiting. you'll find him. you've got this.

[nsfwhiphop]

Incoming Text for @zoesaldana and @rosariodawson : Hey, Zoe & Rosario! I want to make sure you understand that I have never insulted the director James Cameron (@jamescameronofficial), Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris Pratt, or Mark Ruffalo. I never insulted them. You have to understand that there are two kinds of white people today: the ones who side with the oppressor and the ones who are our allies. I never accused these men of being white supremacists. They are your good friends, and it's important they know I never spoke ill of them. I know they're fighting the good fight as well. So, make sure you tell them that I never insulted them. I'm cool with these white men. It's also important that you tell Jennifer Garner that I don't like Ben Affleck, but I respect Jennifer Garner (@jennifer.garner). I'm not a racist anti-white person. I'm only trying to avoid getting shot. If I don't sound the alarm by pointing the finger at the white supremacists, guess what happens? We all get shot and arrested. Then I have to be the bad guy, they all say I'm the bad guy now. So, it's not about being racist; it's about helping us identify and avoid bullets and jail. It's about saving lives. You should understand that we are fighting a deadly virus. White supremacy is a deadly virus that is destroying many lives, so we must protect ourselves from their bullets and their corrupt cops who wish to throw us in jail. I hope my message was clear. I'm trying to protect Black and Latino wealth, so if I come across as harsh and very strict, you should understand I'm saving lives. I'm a freedom fighter, and that's what we do—we are life savers.

[profeminist]

"In the 1960s, prominent Japanese activist Kochiyama’s support of political Asian-American and Black liberation movements led to an alliance with Malcolm X. Also, Chinese community leader Grace Lee Boggs and her husband, political activist James Boggs, founded Detroit Summer, a program for youth of all races to help redevelop the city.

As the fight to abolish white supremacy rages on, we’re honoring some of the Black and Asian women living and fighting for social justice at the intersection of these communities and struggles.

“Before #Asians4BlackLives, there was Yuri Kochiyama cradling Malcolm's head as he bled. There was Grace Lee and James Boggs unified in love and in activism. There was Tupac, sharing his family's history in Yuri's living room,” says Aerica Shimizu Banks, a Black and Japanese inclusion innovator who advocates for justice and educates on the interconnectedness between Black and Asian communities. “And there are people, like me, living their Asian and Black lives simultaneously and inextricably. As Yuri said, ‘We are all part of one another.’ So whether you’re Black, white, Asian, Latino, we have to continue to carry that mantle [to fight for justice].”

Read the full piece here

[seattlesea]

bad representation in the riordanverse

Racism:

-Gave Hazel and Piper gold and ‘kaleidoscope’/brown-blue-green changing eyes and pretty much went ‘Let’s add some characters of color but they cANT HAVE BROWN EYES THAT’S NOT PRETTY ENOUGH’ as if whitewashing isn’t more than just the skin.

-East Asian characters: Riordan pretty much went 'Here are my East Asian characters- one of them looks like a fat baby on steroids and is super undeveloped, his mother is strict and cold, and all the others are just described as 'Asian' because different countries in Asia don't exist and there's obviously no difference between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean'. His portrayal of East Asian characters went like this: Frank: Chinese, chubby, hates himself, underdeveloped, described to look like a 'Chinese Canadian baby man' and a 'panda' as if that's not stereotyping, and only learned to love himself when he looked hotter.  Drew: Asian, villainized, rude, shallow, vain, and selfish. Ethan: Asian, rude, evil, a traitor, and deceased. Grandma Zhang- rude, strict, cold, traditional, and deceased.

-Hazel: Has gold eyes. Has 'cinnamon brown' hair even though dark brown or black hair would be way more inclusive and realistic. Had a mother portrayed as a rude and selfish witch who sacrificed, used, and trafficked her own child. Was the only character called or described as a witch while African-Americans were usually accused of witchcraft just for their skin color. Was the only character who was cursed. Had a mother who literally practiced voodoo. The only African-American character in the series before ToA who isn't dead (but she also died). Was paired with a sixteen year old guy even though African women are constantly forced with older men and that's blatantly racist stereotyping. 

-Piper: Had 'chocolate brown' and then 'mahogany' hair? Has kaleidoscope eyes. Put a feather in her hair (which is stereotyping)- and it was an eagle feather, which is also wrong because eagles are extremely sacred to First Nation tribes and only spiritual leaders or warriors can wear it or it has to be gifted by an Elder of the tribe, and Riordan basically went 'Feathers are very important and it's racist to make a character wear one at inappropriate times but I'm going to make my character wear one as a cute accessory to make her look cool, pretty, and headstrong and to add to her 'Aesthetic'’ even though Cherokees didn’t wear feathers (which proves he did the bare minimum of research). Constantly oversexualized (56% of First Nation women are sexually harassed and Riordan had the audacity to put Piper in an 'embarrassingly low v-neck' and to have her constantly drooled over by a WHITE MALE and have her sexualized by her 1000+ mother without her knowledge or consent).  It's said that her father was from a reservation in Oklahoma...but there are no reservations in Oklahoma, only cultural centers (which also proves that he did the bare minimum of research).  She's the only First Nations character and she's the only character (besides Nancy Bobofit) depicted as a kleptomaniac (First Nations people are constantly called thieves by racist assholes). “The week before, he’d turned down several million dollars to play Tonto in a remake of The Lone Ranger. Piper was still trying to figure out why. He’d played all kinds of roles—a Latino teacher in a tough L.A. school, a dashing Israeli spy in an action-adventure blockbuster, even a Syrian terrorist in a James Bond movie. And, of course, he would always be known as the King of Sparta. But if the part was Native American—it didn’t matter what kind of role it was—Dad turned it down.” (The Lost Hero, page 165). So her father is fine with playing an extremely racist and stereotypical Middle Eastern role but not a First Nations role. Uses a cornucopia as a weapon (how she got it- cutting it off a half-bull- is disrespectful to her culture as hurting an animal is banned and she used a cornucopia- a symbol of Thanksgiving- as a weapon). Cut her hair, which is basically taboo in First Nations culture.

-Samirah: Had an arranged marriage (at age twelve, and she believed that she was groomed to be married to a rich and respectable family and nothing else). Ripped off her hijab in front of tons of male characters. The only Muslim character. The only Muslim character and she's the only character who married her cousin (you're supposed to break stereotypes, not enforce them).

Thomas Jefferson Jr: Said that he was thankful to the British for not siding with the South during the American Civil War even though they needed the South's cotton (but they didn't side with the North either). AKA a black man and son of a freed slave was thankful to Britain for not openly oppressing him? And at the same time he was named after a racist slave-owner.

Reyna: She's brown and her entire story revolves around her being independent, strong, alone, and self-sufficient but also desperately needing love and support but then Riordan says that she can't get her heart healed AKA she went through an abusive home, killed her father, left her sister, felt alone her whole life, worked a two-person job alone for months, and had to put on a brave face for others throughout all this then was literally told 'Shut up no one wants to hear about your struggles, just suck it up and deal with it’ and have you seen all the shit brown girls have to go through and keep silent about it? 

Extra: -Latino, Puerto Rican, African-American, Chinese-Canadian, East Asian, First Nations, etc. characters and the two most powerful, best, and most skilled characters and who the stories mostly revolve around are two white guys AKA white supremacy.

-"Harriet Tubman, daughter of Hermes, used many mortals on her Underground Railroad for just this reason" and that World War II was caused by a child of Zeus and a child of Hades fighting very blatantly erases the shit those people went through and Riordan just went 'Let's use these racist movements as little easter eggs in my story'.

-Thanatos, who was chained and enslaved, is described with dark skin.

-Riordan writing the characters went a little something like this: Drew: You get common Eastern Asian features like dark hair and eyes because you're arrogant, selfish, conceited, and rude, and because you're an antagonist and you're going to be used to make one of my protagonists- who has unique traits- look good so you're going to have the basic, 'boring' physical traits so the readers know who's the more superior of the two of you. Leo: You get common Latino features like curly dark hair, dark eyes, and light brown skin cause you're the weird, hyperactive unattractive one who's very flirty but constantly gets rejected and you're the only main character without a love interest and the only way you can get a girlfriend is when she's forced to fall in love with you through a curse. Frank: You get common Chinese features like dark hair and eyes cause you're the fat unattractive loser who catches the eye of the African character who already has unique and 'special' traits so you don't have to be super attractive. Reyna: You get common Puerto Rican traits like dark skin, hair, and eyes cause you're the stoic, lonely, intimidating, and cold one who wants all the guys (two white guys for that matter) but none of them want you and they both have girlfriends with traits like blonde hair and gray and kaleidoscope eyes so the readers know who are the more interesting couples.  Piper and Hazel: You two get eurocentric features because you're the main characters I have to set apart from everyone else- including other females whom I'm going to make one of you rivals with- so the readers know who's more superior so I'm giving you unique eye colors that literally cannot be found in humans so I'm going to try to validate it by saying that it's from something mildly associated with your godly parent even though neither of them have those traits. Riordan basically said that the common features are bad and boring and that unique and special features- aka features not found in those ethnicities- are good and cool. Also- if gods don’t have DNA how can their traits be passed down to their demigod children checkmate Riordan.

-Cecil Markowitz is the only Jewish character in PJO and the first thing used to describe him is "That kid, always thinking about the potential payout".

-Lavinia said that she was going to bring her date to her bat mitzvah even though you don't bring dates to bat mitzvahs or bar mitzvahs and she said that it was 'awkward' to tell her rabbi that someone was going to be her date even though you don't explain your guestlist to your rabbi, and they're most likely not even going to be at the party.

-Only three Latino and Puerto Rican characters (Leo, Reyna, and Hylla) and all three came from abusive households.

-Leo said 'Mamacita' as if that's not stereotyping.

-Made Nico ‘pale’ even though he had olive skin and gave him black hair and dark eyes despite Italians usually having light hair and eyes just to add to his ‘Goth Boy Aesthetic’.

-Hazel described Pluto to look like Adolf Hitler.

-Carter Kane said that Elvis took African-American music and made it sound like rock 'n roll and described it as cool- like no it’s cultural appropriation. 

-Leo was abused and Riordan thought that it'd be funny to make all the other characters line up to punch him and then try to make it look funny. 

-Gave almost every single POC character a white name and sometimes gave them white first names and POC surnames, and Reyna and Bianca are the only POC characters with names from their culture/native language and one of them is dead and reborn as someone else and the other’s full name wasn’t revealed until the fourth book in her series and she hates using it.

-Made two POC characters with names from their culture- Samirah and Olujime- go by white nicknames (Sam and Jamie) to make it ‘easier to read’ despite having white characters with the same amount of syllables in their names (like Annabeth) that didn’t go by nicknames.

-Never actually described the characters of color with physical traits from their ethnicities (Reyna, Hylla, and Leo with big eyes, thick eyebrows, brown hair, wide noses, full lips, etc., Piper with almost-oriental eyes, shovel teeth, high cheekbones, black hair, etc., Nico with light or brown hair and eyes, olive skin, a narrow nose, etc., Hazel with a wide nose and lips, dark brown eyes, black or dark brown hair, big eyes, thick eyebrows, etc.).

Anti-LGBTQ+:

-Nico was forcibly outed by Cupid and Riordan and the fandom didn't care and the only thing they thought was 'Aww, he has a crush on Percy! So cute!' AKA romanticizing a forced outing. 

-Riordan said that he didn't want to make Reyna lesbian or bisexual because he thought it'd be stereotypical making her LGBTQ+ because she didn't want men anymore even though she could've been bisexual all along but Riordan casually dismissed the idea of that saying "Having a girl end up with a woman after dating men is a bad stereotype" and basically said that real bi girls don’t exist.

-The Hunters of Artemis were made so Artemis/Diana could protect those girls from men and their behavior towards women but Riordan dismissed lesbian relationships- even though nothing about that was said in real Greek mythology- meaning that he thinks that women need protection from other women just as much as they need protection from men.

-Alex Fierro is the only gender-fluid or transgender character and she/he’s seen as rude, snarky, and sharp and Magnus could magically tell when Alex changed gender.

-Riordan said that he wouldn’t make Reyna a lesbian because of stereotypes despite the reader asking if Reyna was going to get a girlfriend, not come out as lesbian AKA Riordan thinks ‘Girls liking girls’ is automatically ‘lesbian’ and completely dismissed bi, pan, poly, omni, etc. girls.

-Used a self-insert to make fun of wlw readers who saw themself in Reyna and thought she could be a cool character to relate to.

-Enforced LGBTQ+ stereotypes like the cold-hearted Asexual, the flamboyant bi/pan, the snarky gender-fluid, the emo gay, the laid-back and rebellious lesbian who dyed her hair pink and chews a lot of bubblegum, etc.

-Has one-hundred fifty-five characters total minus gods/goddesses, Titans, giants, nymphs, dryads, satyrs, monsters, etc. and only has fifteen confirmed LGBTQ+ characters (do the math, that’s exactly one out of ten regarding OCs).

-Only one character that isn’t cishet.

-Saves most the LGBTQ+ for the side characters or only confirms characters LGBTQ+ once they’ve become a minor character despite being a main character before.

-Only stated that Reyna was Asexual outside of his books and on Twitter as if that’s not exactly what J.K Rowling is doing.

-Used the LGBTQ+ community to make Piper seem like the ‘special snowflake’ and to set her apart from her siblings to make it seem like she’s better than all of them and used Hera/Juno and Aphrodite/Venus as excuses for his homophobic mindset that believes that straight is the default cause “Suddenly, much of what she and I had talked about started to make sense. Not being defined by Aphrodite’s expectations. Or Hera’s ideas of what a perfect couple looked like. Piper finding her own way, not the one people expected of her” in synonymous words is 'The expectations for love and the idea of a perfect couple are a heterosexual relationship, and anyone who 'finds their own way instead of the ones people expect' are different'. ‘Different’ and ‘default’ are antonyms AKA if he thinks that LGBTQ+ people are ‘different’, he thinks that straight is the ‘default’. Remember- an author writes their own personal beliefs.

-Josephine is the only black LGBTQ+ character.

-Reyna is said to be Asexual despite feeling sexual attraction towards Percy cause no one likes someone five minutes after knowing them and it’s anything but sexual attraction.

-Magnus and Alex are the only LGBTQ+ relationship whose growth and development is actually shown in the story (while there was also Apollo and Commodus, Piper and Shel, Will and Nico, Apollo and Hyacinthus, Emmie and Jo, Lavinia and Poison Oak, etc.).

-Riordan never canonically said the name of any sexuality and is clearly uncomfortable with the LGBTQ+ community shown by his little to no writing regarding physical affection and deep emotions in his LGBTQ+ relationships.

-Only added in LGBTQ+ relationships for publicity- Percy Jackson and the Olympians release dates: 2005-2009. 2005-2009: LGBTQ+ support was nearly at an all-time low. No LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or references in the books. The Lost Hero-The Mark of Athena release dates: 2010-2012. 2010-2012: LGBTQ+ support was still very low. Still no LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or references in the books. The House of Hades release date: late 2013. Mid-2013: the giant spike for LGBTQ+ support and allies. One confirmed LGBTQ+ character. The Sword of Summer release date: late 2015. 2015: LGBTQ+ support was good and gay marriage was legalized. A few LGBTQ+ references but no confirmed characters. The Hammer of Thor and The Ship of the Dead release dates: 2016-2017. 2016-2017: LGBTQ+ support was quite high. Two confirmed LGBTQ+ characters and the first canon LGBTQ+ relationship and kiss. The Trials of Apollo release dates: 2016-2020. 2016-2020: LGBTQ+ support was very high. More LGBTQ+ characters confirmed in one book than all the other series combined. Kind of obvious he was just following the public opinion.

-Legit said ‘Reyna can’t like girls cause she has had crushes on guys before’.

Ableism:

-It was heavily implied in The Battle of the Labyrinth that Rachel Dare had schizophrenia/psychosis but it's never brought up again.

-Grover's fake feet made it look like he was disabled from the Mist and it was said that he was bullied because of it but it was never brought up again.

-It was said that Tyson looked like he had down syndrome from the Mist covering his one eye but it was never brought up again. 

-It was stated that every character but Frank has ADHD and dyslexia but never actually showed any symptoms after Percy Jackson and the Olympians and characters like Piper and Leo were even able to read English writing throughout The Lost Hero and the only symptom of ADHD Riordan showed through his characters was ‘a lot of fidgeting’ as if that’s not a blatant stereotype. 

Pedophilia:

-Luke, a twenty-two/twenty-three year old had a crush on Annabeth, a sixteen year old. That's a six-seven year age gap. 

-The only two girls put into relationships with much older men are black (Hazel and Sadie).

-Hazel, a thirteen year old, got together with a sixteen year old guy. Hazel's crush on Frank is normal- a girl having a crush on an older guy, but Frank's crush on Hazel is disgusting- an older guy looking down at a child and thinking about making out with her.

Misogyny:

-Aphrodite's kids are seen as useless, weak, snobby, shallow, vain, and selfish just because they’re feminine. 

-Riordan portrayed Aphrodite’s kids as feminine despite Aphrodite being the goddess of love and beauty, not femininity, as if romance and beauty are reserved for women only. 

-Piper is the only 'tomboy' child of Aphrodite and she's portrayed as tougher, stronger, and better than her feminine siblings (and it's portrayed that way multiple times throughout the story like other characters telling Piper she’s "-tough for a child of Aphrodite").

-Piper immediately stereotyped and disliked every single feminine character like Drew and the rest of the Aphrodite cabin just because they liked makeup and skirts as if that’s not shallow criticism. 

-Feminine characters like Drew, Isabel, Khione, and Medea are used or even created solely as antagonists to make Piper- the tomboy- look better.

-Calypso is the only feminine character and she sucks at everything. 

-Riordan’s take on female characters: Drew: a vain, rude, selfish, snobby, and bitchy mean girl. Silena: a shallow traitor. Reyna: a cold-hearted robot. Piper: internalized misogyny that was never brought up again. Calypso: an island whore. Athena: a rude, aggressive bitch with no emotions. Aphrodite: shallow, vain, conceited, and self-centered. Hera: completely evil with no backstory added into it. Marie: an evil witch who selfishly used and sacrificed her daughter.

-The Hunters of Artemis were blessed by Artemis to protect them from men but Riordan made it only about the men in their lives (again) and portrayed the whole 'losing men' thing like it was a burden and that they're 'giving men up' even though they join the Hunters to leave men. He distorted the original meaning of the Hunters- protecting women- by making it about the Hunters hating and being forced to leave men even though they're asking to have no men in their lives, cause that's the point of it. 

-The Amazons and Hunters of Artemis despise men and literally attack them if they so much as speak as if sexism is reserved for women only.

-Portrayed femininity as weakness (and masculinity as strength, it’s even in the word- tomBOY).

-Constantly pit women against women for the sake of romance and love triangles instead of normalizing women getting along despite liking the same people and let the female’s relationships get controlled and influenced by the men in their lives.

-The men always outpower the women in powers and skills. Riordan’s portrayal of powers and characters- Percy: You’re going to have epic water powers and can even create your own personal hurricanes and even though you’ve only been canonically training for eight months total you’re going to be the best swordfighter despite multiple characters having years more training than you. Jason: You’re going to be able to fly, control lightning, create storms, and electric shock people into another dimension. Leo: You’re going to be able to create and control fire and blow shit up with just a screwdriver. Frank: You’re going to be able to shape-shift into any animal you want, even a whole dragon. Nico: You’re going to be able to control darkness and shadows, literally teleport, and raise a whole army of undead soldiers. Reyna: Powers? Nah, your only ability is to lend strength to others as if that benefits you at all. Annabeth: Powers? Nah. Piper: You’re going to be able to manipulate and seduce people and are literally going to use your body and attractiveness as a weapon and your power is literally called charmspeak. Hazel: You have more powers than all the other characters combined that can literally destroy anyone in less than a second but you’re never going to use them or even remember that you have them cause screw the female character being more powerful than the males. 

-The men always accomplish the most incredible feats and if the females ever do accomplish something great (Reyna healing the riff and defeating Orion while the Hunters and Amazons couldn’t combined, Annabeth going through Tartarus, Hazel learning to control the Mist, etc.) they are never praised or rewarded or all the credit goes to the men. 

-Ares/Mars in real Greek/Roman mythology was the feminist patron of the Amazons who loved his daughter very much and killed a rapist but was portrayed as the dumb, cruel asshole who loved nothing but bloodshed and tried to kill a twelve year-old kid who was trying to help him while Poseidon/Neptune in real Greek/Roman mythology was a greedy, short-tempered, and arrogant asshole who raped almost as much women than Zeus/Jupiter but was portrayed as the kind, caring, and gentle father figure. 

Fatophobia:

-Frank is the only chubby character and he hates himself because of it, was constantly fat-shamed, and only learned to love himself after he got rippling abs, muscles, and looked hotter (because fat = ugly in Riordan’s mind, even though it's not). 

-Clovis was depicted with a pot-belly and Drew described him as 'repulsive'.

-Dionysus/Bacchus is also depicted with a pot-belly and he's portrayed as a useless, rude, lazy, and drunken asshole. 

Lookism:

Basically how Riordan wrote his characters- Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Reyna, Hazel, Piper, and most minor protagonists: You’re all going to be super attractive, have at least one character or more pining for you, have your looks constantly commented on, and some of you will even use your looks as a weapon cause that’s not obvious sexualization cause you’re all the main characters and protagonists that readers need to know are the protagonists. Nico, Leo, and Frank: You three are originally portrayed as unattractive but at some points are described as cute and two of you are insecure about your looks cause you’re scrawny and chubby and one of you hates yourself cause of your body and only learn to love yourself once you magically gain abs cause more muscle obviously equals more attractiveness.  Luke, Silena, Chris, and Ethan: You four are going to be super attractive because you’re traitors but all of you make up for your actions and decide to help the demigods and become protagonists again. Octavian, Bryce, Michael, Titans, giants, etc.: You all are the antagonists so you have to be super ugly with multiple physical imperfections cause you’re not allowed to be attractive since you are against the protagonists and I have to set you guys apart and show the readers who’s the better and more superior character. 

-Frank hated himself cause he was chubby and only loved himself once he got skinnier and gained muscle through magic but even then was called ‘cute like a panda’.

-Leo was described as scrawny and unattractive and was insecure about being short but even then was called ‘cute in a scrawny way’.

-Piper had facial imperfections and even a pimple on her nose but once she got claimed all of those disappeared and they stayed gone even after the blessing washed off despite all the magic being gone and only then was Piper’s looks commented on multiple times. 

-Lester/Apollo hated his appearance cause he had a little flab and acne and his physical imperfections were used as comedy by making fun of it as if insecure readers don’t exist.

-Percy and Annabeth had one canon physical imperfection- a gray streak in their hair- and that magically washed away.

-None of the other characters were described with any physical imperfections like pimples/zits/acne, body hair (despite none of the characters having the care or time to wax or shave), bushy/frizzy or messy hair or eyebrows, big or small hands or noses, blackheads, super thick or thin eyebrows, blemishes, birthmarks, scars, stretch marks, braces, lazy eyes, yellow or chipped teeth, eye bags, glasses, moles, dimples, love handles, flab/fat, visible veins, freckles, etc. unless it added to their ‘aesthetic’ despite none of those being bad and saves it only for the antagonists as if ‘physical imperfections’ = ‘evil’. 

Bias:

-Riordan portrayed the Romans as cold, cruel, ruthless, strict, and overall horrible despite them being the more inclusive camp regarding family and godly parents, have multiple families and rules that ensure their camper’s safety, and hold the nicest characters in the series while the Greeks are portrayed as fun, wild, reckless, silly, and cool despite holding the most prejudiced and rude characters, outcasting and ostracizing characters of certain godly parents just for their parentage, stereotype almost every single cabin, and make some campers without siblings live, sleep, and eat alone. 

-Every Greek traitor (Luke, Silena, Ethan, and Chris) were portrayed as powerful, kind, attractive, and awesome and each made up for their actions but each Roman ‘traitor’ (Octavian, Bryce, and Michael, and only one of them are actually a traitor) were portrayed as unattractive, cruel, ambitious, ruthless, and extremely weak and never actually did anything useful.

-The Greeks were part of the Union and the Romans were part of the Confederacy (adding on to Riordan adding racist movements as fun little easter eggs in his stories).

-Four out of seven of the main Seven are Greek.

-There are at least 70+ Greek characters and less than thirty named Romans.

-The Battle of San Francisco Bay was used for the sole purpose to weaken the Romans and make the Greeks seem stronger than them and while the Greeks went through two whole wars, their camp laid almost completely untouched but the moment the Romans are introduced, half their population is wiped?

Romanticization:

-Romanticized Annabeth judo-flipping Percy AKA romanticized physical abuse/harassment (emotions, angriness, feelings of love and affection, ‘they went through a lot together’, etc. do not excuse hitting someone) despite Annabeth knowing where Percy’s Achilles Heel was and not knowing he lost it and flipping him on his back anyways (if Percy didn’t lose the Achilles Heel, Annabeth would’ve killed him).

-Romanticized Leo killing himself to see Calypso again and to take her off her island AKA a romanticized suicide.

-Romanticized Calypso yelling at and insulting Leo and Annabeth insulting and canonically lowering Percy’s self-esteem AKA romanticized verbal abuse/bullying.

-Romanticized Will trying to help Nico through his loneliness and depression as if that can’t be portrayed as someone just wanting to help another person AKA  romanticized mental illness.

-Romanticized every character kissing another character without asking first and without their consent AKA romanticized sexual harassment.

-Romanticized Piper taking advantage over Jason’s amnesia and mental state and jumping onto him despite knowing there might be a girl he couldn’t remember AKA romanticized manipulation.

-Romanticized Piper and Annabeth’s possessive, overly-jealous, and controlling behavior over Jason and Percy (even before they were canonically dating).

-Romanticized Nico being forced to confess his crush on Percy AKA romanticized a forced outing.

Rick Riordan:

-Refused to apologize for his actions even after being called out by people from the groups he was writing inaccurately and stereotyping (Muslim, Jewish, African, First Nation, lesbian, gay, Puerto Rican, etc.) and tried to make himself look like the victim.

-Claimed he was being ‘bullied’ by readers half his age who were just pointing out his books’ racist flaws.

-Showed time and time again that he is not willing to listen to the voices of minorities.

-Clearly didn’t do his research on ethnicities, sexualities, religions, etc. shown by how he got the simplest things wrong.

-Tried to say that he- a straight white man- was right when people of the actual groups he was writing about (gay, First Nation tribes, etc.) were wrong.

-Used excuses like having a ‘headstrong’ and ‘stubborn’ character who wants to ‘show their culture in their own way’ for his stereotypes. No, Riordan, you want to show the culture that way, not Piper. She’s a fictional character, you’re real. Dumbass.

-Literally said ‘Sorry I put feathers in Piper’s hair, I can’t change what I wrote in the past and I didn’t know that sensitive readers existed’ then continued to write feathers in Piper’s hair in the future books. 

The Fandom:

Note: Not to all of the fandom, obviously

-Draws Piper with light skin, light hair, and kaleidoscope eyes with feathers, hippie bands, and beads (yes, it's canon, but you're allowed to change it if it's blatantly racist, and the bead and hippie band thing was created by the fandom and that's also stereotyping).

-Almost always draw Reyna, Hylla, and Leo with light skin and Caucasian traits (props to the few artists who drew them with the right skin tones).

-Draws Hazel with gold eyes, ‘cinnamon’/light brown hair, and an adult body.

-Sexualizes female characters by drawing them in sexy and revealing clothes and giving them all the same exact sexy, slim, and perfect hour-glass shaped bodies.

-Almost never include physical imperfections, muscle, scars, stretch marks, etc. in drawings.

-Fancasts white actors for characters of color and puts actors/faceclaims of white people or people of different ethnicities in the moodboards or aesthetics for characters of color.

-Participates in cultural appropriation by wearing feathers when cosplaying Piper and wearing a hijab when cosplaying Samirah.

-Supports Riordan, tries to defend him, and condones his clearly racist and bigoted actions just cause they ‘like the books’ (if you are straight, white, and/or cishet, I definitely don’t want to see you trying to defend a fifty-five year-old multi-millionaire who is clearly racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic).

-Romanticize physical abuse, verbal abuse, mental illnesses and panic/anxiety attacks, etc.

-Ship pedophilic, manipulative, abusive, and wrong relationships.

-Barely allow others to have their own opinions (looking at you Perachel haters) without yelling at, insulting, cursing out, and/or even threatening them for liking or disliking different things than them including ships, characters, books, plots/faults, and Riordan himself.

-Straightwashes characters like shipping Nico with female characters or setting him up with a female character in fanfics.

-Whitewashes characters like drawing Hazel and Piper with eurocentric features, Reyna, Hylla, and Leo with white skin and Caucasian traits, Nico with white/pale skin, etc.

-Try to excuse and explain abusive, manipulative, possessive, and overall very wrong and toxic behavior.

-Fail to recognize and/or admit the toxic, racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic, wrong, abusive, etc. faults in the books, ships, and characters just cause they like them.

The Percy Jackson franchise does not add good representation. You can still like the series as long as you don’t condone Riordan’s racist and toxic writing and actions and don’t try to ignore the horrible and stereotypical faults just cause you don’t want to admit that your favorite or childhood story is horrible. 

[snailg0th]

here’s my giant leftist to-read list for the next few years!!!

if a little (done!) it written next to the book, it means i’ve finished it! i’m gonna try to update this as i read but no promises on remembering haha

Economics/Politics

Property by Karl Marx

Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (done!)

Wages, Price, and Profit by Karl Marx (done!)

Wage-Labor and Capital by Karl Marx (done!)

Capital Volume I by Karl Marx

The 1844 Manuscripts by Karl Marx

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Fredrich Engles

Synopsis of Capital by Fredrich Engels

The Principles of Communism by Fredrich Engles

Imperialism, The Highest Stage Of Capitalism by Vladmir Lenin

The State And Revolution by Vladmir Lenin

The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky

Fascism: What is it and How to Fight it by Leon Trotsky

In Defense Of Marxism by Leon Trotsky

The Accumulation of Capital by Rosa Luxemborg

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin

On Anarchism by Noam Chomsky

Profit over People by Noam Chomsky

An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory by Ernest Mandel

The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith

The Postmodern Condition by Jean François Lyotard

Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher

The Socialist Reconstruction of Society by Daniel De Leon

Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman

Socialism Made Easy by James Connolly

Race

Biased: Uncover in the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Blindspot by Mahzarin R. Banaji

Racism Without Racists: Color-blind Racism And The Persistence Of Racial Inequality In America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

How To Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy And The Racial Divide by Crystal M. Flemming

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How To Wake Up, Take Action, And Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell & Aurelia Durand

The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism For The Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs

Tell Me Who You Are by Winona Guo & Priya Vulchi

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesymn Ward

Class, Race, and Marxism by David R. Roediger

America for Americans: A History Of Xenophobia In The United States by Erica Lee

The Politics Of The Veil by Joan Wallach Scott

A Different Mirror A History Of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki

A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn

Black Theory

The Wretched Of The World by Frantz Fanon

Black Marxism by Cedric J Robinson

Malcolm X Speaks by Malcolm X

Women, Culture, and Politics by Angela Davis

Women, Race, & Class by Angela Davis (done!)

Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis (done!)

The Meaning of Freedom by Angela Davis

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Ain’t I A Woman? by Bell Hooks

Yearning by Bell Hooks

Dora Santana’s Works

An End To The Neglect Of The Problems Of The Negro Women by Claudia Jones

I Am Your Sister by Audre Lorde

Women’s Liberation And The African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara

W.E.B. DuBois Essay Collection

Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois

Lynch Law by Ida B. Wells

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Sula by Toni Morrison

Song Of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Paradise by Toni Morrison

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

This Bridge Called My Back by Cherríe Moraga

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Black Skins, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Killing of the Black Body

Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P Newton

Settlers; The myth of the White Proletariat

Fearing The Black Body; The Racial Origins of Fatphobia

Freedom Dreams; The Black Radical Imagination

How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

An Argument For Black Women’s Liberation As a Revolutionary Force by Mary Anne Weathers

Voices of Feminism Oral History Project by Frances Beal

Ghosts In The Schoolyard: Racism And School Closings On Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon To White America by Michael Eric Dyson

Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, Big Business, Re-create Race In The 21st Century by Dorothy Roberts

We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race & Resegregation by Jeff Chang

They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery

The Common Wind by Julius S. Scott

Black Is The Body: Stories From My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, And Mine by Emily Bernard

We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates

American Lynching by Ashraf H. A. Rushdy

Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affects Us and What We Can Do

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life Of Black Communist Claudia Jones by Carole Boyce Davies

Black Studies Manifesto by Darlene Clark

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Souls Of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

Darkwater by W.E.B. Du Bois

The Education Of Blacks In The South, 1860-1935 by James D. Anderson

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

The Color Of Money: Black Banks And The Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran

A Black Women’s History Of The United States by Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross

The Price For Their Pound Of Flesh: The Value Of The Enslaved, From Womb to Grave, In The Building Of A Nation by Daina Ramey Berry

North Of Slavery: The Negro In The Free States, 1780-1869 by Leon F. Litwack

Black Stats: African Americans By The Numbers In The Twenty-First Century by Monique M. Morris

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique M. Morris

40 Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, And Redemption of The Black Athlete by William C. Rhoden

From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

A More Beautiful And Terrible History: The Uses And Misuses Of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History Of Medical Experimentation On Black Americans From Colonial Times To The Present by Harriet A. Washington

Working At The Intersections: A Black Feminist Disability Framework” by Moya Bailey

Theory by Dionne Brand

Black Women, Writing, And Identity by Carole Boyce Davies

Slavery By Another Name: The Re-enslavement Of Black Americans From The Civil War To World War II by Douglass A. Blackmon

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Some Of Us Are Very Hungry Now by Andre Perry

The Origins Of The Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality In Postwar Detroit by Thomas Surgue

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

Beyond Containment: Autobiographical Reflections, Essays and Poems by Claudia Jones

The Black Woman: An Anthology by Toni McCade

Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances Beal

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Indigenous Theory

Colonize This! by Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman

As We Have Always Done

Braiding Sweetgrass

Spaces Between Us

The Sacred Hoop by Paula Gunn Allen

Native: Identity, Belonging, And Rediscovering God by Kaitlin Curtice

An Indigenous People’s History Of The United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice

Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, And The Pursuit Of Justice For Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid

The Other Slavery by Andrés Reséndez

Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

All Our Relations: Indigenous Trauma In The Shadow Of Colonialism by Tanya Talaga

All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward by Tanya Talaga

Everything You Wanted To Know About Indians But Were Afraid To Ask by Anton Treuer

Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treuer

Latine Theory

Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of Pillage of A Continent by Eduardo Galeano

Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gomez

De Colores Means All Of Us by Elizabeth Martinez

Middle Eastern And Muslim Theory

How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young And Arab In America by Moustafa Bayoumi

We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future by Deepa Iyer

Alligator and Other Stories by Dima Alzayat

API Theory

Orientalism by Edward Said

The Making Of Asian America by Erika Lee

On Gold Mountain by Lisa See

Strangers From A Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans by Ronald Takaki

They Called Us Enemy (Graphic Novel) by George Takei

Yellow Peril!: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear by Edited by John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats

Yellow: Race In America Beyond Black And White by Frank H. Wu

Alien Nation: Chinese Migration In The Americas From The Coolie Era Through World War II by Elliott Young

The Good Immigrants: How The Yellow Peril Became The Model Minorities by Madeline H. Ysu

Asian American Dreams: The Emergence Of An American People by Helen Zia

The Myth Of The Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism by Rosalind S. Chou & Joe R. Feagin

Two Faces Of Exclusion: The Untold Story Of Anti-Asian Racism In The United States by Lon Kurashige

Whiteness

White Fragility by Robin Di Angelo (done!)

White Kids: Growing Up With Privilege In A Racially Divided America by Margaret A. Hagerman

Waking Up White by Deby Irving

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter

White Like Me: Reflections On Race From A Privileged Son by Tim Wise

White Rage by Carol Anderson

What Does It Mean To Be White: Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin DiAngelo

The Invention of The White Race: Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control by Theodore W. Allen

The Invention of The White Race: Volume 2: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America by Theodore W. Allen

Immigration

Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftir

Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist At Work by Edwidge Danticat

My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay In Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli

Voter Suppression

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson

Give Us The Vote: The Modern Struggle For Voting Rights In America by Ari Berman

Prison Abolition And Police Violence

Abolition Democracy by Angela Davis

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis

The Prison Industrial Complex by Angela Davis

Political Prisoners, Prisons, And Black Liberation by Angela Davis

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (done!)

The End Of Policing by Alex S Vitale

Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie

Choke Hold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler

From The War On Poverty To The War On Crime: The Making Of Mass Incarceration In America by Elizabeth Hinton

Feminist Theory

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft

Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay

7 Feminist And Gender Theories

Race, Gender, And Class by Margaret L. Anderson

African Gender Studies by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

The Invention Of Women by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

What Gender Is Motherhood? by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity by Chandra Talpade Mohanty

I Am Malala by Malala Youssef

LGBT Theory

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Performative Acts and Gender Constitution by Judith Butler

Imitation and Gender Insubordination by Judith Butler

Bodies That Matter by Judith Butler

Excitable Speech by Judith Butler

Undoing Gender by Judith Butler

The Roots Of Lesbian And Gay Opression: A Marxist View by Bob McCubbin

Compulsory Heterosexuality And Lesbian Existence by Adrienne Rich

Decolonizing Trans/Gender 101 by B. Binohan

Gay.Inc: The Nonprofitization of Queer Politics by Merl Beam

Pronouns Good or Bad: Attitudes and Relationships with Gendered Pronouns

Transgender Warriors

Whipping Girl; A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

Stone Butch Blues by Lesie Feinberg (done!)

The Stonewall Reader by Edmund White

Sissy by Jacob Tobia

Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein

Butch Queens Up In Pumps by Marlon M. Bailey

Black On Both Sides: A Racial History Of Trans Identities by C Riley Snorton

Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin

Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley

Lavender and Red by Emily K. Hobson

[varmajackie]

ty for the tag bby @beckaroo ily

across the void: don’t remember his name exactly but i think i romanced sol?? lol

america’s most eligible: latino adam was too pretty to reject... djfdks but if i remember correctly i ended up with slater

baby bump: i don’t think this is up for discussion when we have the pretty major right here... <33

bachlorette party: never went that far to romance anyone djsfkjdfk

big sky country: I rather play Babu ten times in a row than read a horse yeehaw book <- what becky said here ^^

blades of light & shadow: tyril <33 my blue elf man

bloodbound: ideologically i don’t agree with bloodbound but kamilah sayeed

the crown & the flame: kenna and dom ended up together hehehhe

a courtesan of rome: i nearly romanced all of them and ended up with my family because i liked acor more like in general, plot wise but the only time i ended up with someone it was syphax

desire and decorum: ernest ofc my favorite gremlin

endless summer: jake jake jake

the elementalists: none of the li’s weren’t so appealing to me but beckett

the freshman: ZIG ORTEGA!! MY KING (honourable mention to james ashton i completed his route of 6 books too, he deserved better sigh)

the haunting of braidwood manor: eleanor, if i had diamonds lol

the heist: monaco: i was too broke to romance anyone but all of them looked delicious

hero: i haven’t played it

it lives anthology: i romanced both connor and lucas

high school story: michael 

home for the holidays: wyatt might be a dumbass but he was my dumbass ok....

lovehacks: both ben and mark!

mother of the year: thomas mendez aka the best man ever existed in this pixel universe

nightbound: cal my best werewolf

open heart: ethan........ ndsjkdksa i think that pretty obvious

perfect match: DAMIEN NAZARIO MY FIRST PIXEL LOVE!! i even named my oph mc dr nazario when i played it first... this level of obsession

platinum: RALEIGH!!!!!

red carpet diaries: never finished it 

ride or die: colt.. miss him ever day

rules of engagement: the business man ofc

the royal masquerade: KAYDEN VESCOVI SUPREMACY

sunkissed: no one, only if the lasagna sauce was an option, i might have rethink

veil of secrets: flynn babeyyy

wishful thinking: haven’t finished itt 

i probably forgot MANY BOOKS here but well.......

idk if you were tagged so! djfhsj @drethanramslay @mvalentine @kcnnarys @raleigheffingcarrera @jamespotterthefirst anyone who wants to hop in!!!

[ecstarry]

a playlist with actual party songs that my latino king would make me absolute salivate while seeimg him dance

[jewish-privilege]

A federal prosecutor used a routine press conference announcing criminal charges on Thursday to deliver a harsh message to those who advocate white supremacy and white nationalism.

Justin Herdman, the US attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced one count of transmitting threatening communications via interstate commerce against James Reardon, a self-described white nationalist.

Reardon's Instagram account was filled with anti-Semitic slurs. One post included a video of a man shooting a rifle amid sirens and screams. It was tagged to the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown and captioned, "Police identified the Youngstown Jewish Family Community shooter as local white nationalist Seamus O'Rearedon," according to Andy Lipkin, executive vice president of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation. Seamus O'Rearedon is a Gaelic version of Reardon's name.

Herdman, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, said he wanted to speak directly to those who support Reardon's views.

"Go ahead and make your case for Nazism, a white nation, and racial superiority," he said. "The Constitution may give you a voice, but it doesn't guarantee you a receptive audience. Your right to free speech does not automatically mean that people will agree with you. In fact, you have a God-given and inalienable right to be on the losing end of this argument.

"What you don't have, though, is the right to take out your frustration at failure in the political arena by resorting to violence. You don't have any right to threaten the lives and well-being of our neighbors. They have an absolute and God-given and inalienable right to live peacefully, to worship as they please, to be free from fear that they might become a target simply because of the color of their skin, the country of their birth, or the form of their prayer."

He added, "Threatening to kill Jewish people, gunning down innocent Latinos on a weekend shopping trip, planning and plotting to perpetrate murders in the name of a nonsense racial theory, sitting to pray with God-fearing people who you execute moments later - those actions don't make you soldiers, they make you cowards. And law enforcement does not go to war with cowards who break the law, we arrest them and send them to prison."

..."Keep this in mind, though. Thousands and thousands of young Americans already voted with their lives to ensure that this same message of intolerance, death and destruction would not prevail. You can count their ballots by visiting any American cemetery in North Africa, Italy, France or Belgium and tallying the white headstones. You can also recite the many names of civil rights advocates who bled and died in opposing supporters of those same ideologies of hatred. Their voices may be distant, but they can still be heard."

[kny111]

As an on going series of posts highlighting the intersections of white supremacy, antiblackness, antibrowness, BLM type activism and how they interact with surveillance capitalism I wanted to revisit the data which made me post this a while back on the infiltration of white supremacists within law enforcement agencies and their reluctance to address this as a public issue.

The very act of me posting this will likely have the very law enforcement folks harassing me daily to further up that state terror for simply talking about it on this blog. They’ve done this before many times when I’d post anything relating to white supremacy and or its involvement in the state and federal apparatuses. By the look of how often black and brown related deaths would be used to dissuade journalists from writing about this stuff it looks like white supremacist idealism in law enforcement is alive and well which should definitely keep a lot of us on alert when it comes to whom we listen to in authority and what their methods are based on. Do we really want people who whether or not they look like folks from our community, at the end the day receive orders that are ultimately still based on white supremacist slave patrol tactics?

White supremacists and other domestic extremists maintain an active presence in U.S. police departments and other law enforcement agencies. A striking reference to that conclusion, notable for its confidence and the policy prescriptions that accompany it, appears in a classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide from April 2015, obtained by The Intercept. The guide, which details the process by which the FBI enters individuals on a terrorism watchlist, the Known or Suspected Terrorist File, notes that “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers,” and explains in some detail how bureau policies have been crafted to take this infiltration into account.

Although these right-wing extremists have posed a growing threat for years, federal investigators have been reluctant to publicly address that threat or to point out the movement’s longstanding strategy of infiltrating the law enforcement community.

No centralized recruitment process or set of national standards exists for the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, many of which have deep historical connections to racist ideologies. As a result, state and local police as well as sheriff’s departments present ample opportunities for white supremacists and other right-wing extremists looking to expand their power base.

In a heavily redacted version of an October 2006 FBI internal intelligence assessment, the agency raised the alarm over white supremacist groups’ “historical” interest in “infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel.” The effort, the memo noted, “can lead to investigative breaches and can jeopardize the safety of law enforcement sources or personnel.” The memo also states that law enforcement had recently become aware of the term “ghost skins,” used among white supremacists to describe “those who avoid overt displays of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.” In at least one case, the FBI learned of a skinhead group encouraging ghost skins to seek employment with law enforcement agencies in order to warn crews of any investigations.

That report appeared after a series of scandals involving local police and sheriff’s departments. In Los Angeles, for example, a U.S. District Court judge found in 1991 that members of a local sheriff’s department had formed a neo-Nazi gang and habitually terrorized black and Latino residents. In Chicago, Jon Burge, a police detective and rumored KKK member, was fired, and eventually prosecuted in 2008, over charges relating to the torture of at least 120 black men during his decadeslong career. Burge notoriously referred to an electric shock device he used during interrogations as the “nigger box.” In Cleveland, officials found that a number of police officers had scrawled “racist or Nazi graffiti” throughout their department’s locker rooms. In Texas, two police officers were fired when it was discovered they were Klansmen. One of them said he had tried to boost the organization’s membership by giving an application to a fellow officer he thought shared his “white, Christian, heterosexual values.”

Although the FBI has not publicly addressed the issue of white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement since that 2006 report, in a 2015 speech, FBI Director James Comey made an unprecedented acknowledgment of the role historically played by law enforcement in communities of color: “All of us in law enforcement must be honest enough to acknowledge that much of our history is not pretty.” Comey and the agency have been less forthcoming about that history’s continuation into the present.

In 2009, shortly after the election of Barack Obama, a Department of Homeland Security intelligence study, written in coordination with the FBI, warned of the “resurgence” of right-wing extremism. “Right-wing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first African-American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit new members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal through propaganda,” the report noted, singling out “disgruntled military veterans” as likely targets of recruitment. “Right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.”

The report concluded that “lone wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent right-wing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States.” Released just ahead of nationwide Tea Party protests, the report caused an uproar among conservatives, who were particularly angered by the suggestion that veterans might be implicated, and by the broad brush with which the report seemed to paint a range of right-wing groups.

[bountyofbeads]

Why El Paso and other recent attacks in the US are modern-day lynchings

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/17/us/lynchings-racism-new-era-blake/index.html

If you don't read anything else today READ THIS😭😭😭

Why El Paso and other recent attacks in the US are modern-day lynchings

By John Blake | Published August 19, 2019 | CNN | Posted August 19, 2019 |

(CNN) - Carol Anderson was scanning Twitter recently when she saw something that brought back a chilling memory.

Someone asked Latina women if they had changed the way they acted in public after a white man allegedly targeting Mexicans was arrested for gunning down 22 people in an El Paso Walmart. One woman said she no longer speaks Spanish when out alone, checks store exits and now feels like a marked person when among whites.

"The hate feels like a ball in my stomach, and a rope around my neck," the woman said.

For Anderson, the allusion to lynching wasn't just a metaphor. It was personal. She had an uncle who was almost lynched in the early 20th century for standing up to a white man in an Oklahoma store. She also is a historian who wrote about the lynching era in her book, "White Rage."

She says the white men who are driving a surge in white supremacist violence in places like El Paso today are sending the same message to nonwhite Americans that their counterparts did in the lynching era: You will never be safe wherever you go.

"The thing about the lynching era was the capriciousness of it -- no space was safe," says Anderson, an African-American studies professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

"Folks of color were never at ease.

You're looking all the time. You're wondering. Is this a place I can go? You could be walking down the street or in a store or you could be sitting on your front porch and you could get killed."

The term lynching evokes images of a bygone era: black men dangling grotesquely from trees, Southern whites posing proudly by charred bodies, Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit."

But Anderson and others warn that many of the same elements that spawned the lynching era are stirring once again in America. One commentator even described the El Paso shooter as "a lynch mob of one."

The result, Anderson says, is that more Americans -- Latinos, blacks, Muslims, Jews, anyone not seen as white enough -- are now experiencing the same fear of being murdered at random in public that their relatives faced during the lynching era.

"It is tiring. It is ridiculous. It is infuriating," she says.

Here are three parallels between the white supremacists of the lynching era -- roughly the late 19th century through the 1960s -- and today:

Both are driven by the same fear

There's a perception that lynch mobs were motivated by mindless violence. But they were primarily driven by fear.

White supremacists were afraid of losing their dominance and being replaced by blacks in positions of power throughout the South.

"It's a weapon of terror to say to the people you're attacking that you don't belong in the mainstream of our society, and we want you to stay back," says Gibson Stroupe, co-author of "Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time," a biography of the most famous anti-lynching crusader.

"You shouldn't have political rights, make demands on white people, and shouldn't have the same rights in courts."

One of the biggest fears of the lynching era revolved around sex -- white paranoia about black men doing to white women what white men had been doing to black women for years. White supremacists were obsessed with being replaced on a biological level and fixated on the notion of black men raping white women and creating a ''mongrel race."

Modern-day racists are also voicing fears about being replaced.

The white supremacists marching in Charlottesville in 2017 chanted, "You will not replace us,"and "Jews will not replace us." The Texas man suspected in the EL Paso shooting posted a document online saying he was "defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement."

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh was recently criticized for saying Central America immigrants would "dilute and eventually eliminate or erase" what's distinct about American culture.

And the white supremacists of the lynching era were actually starting to be replaced -- at least briefly -- on a political level.

A dizzying set of reforms, called Reconstruction, briefly transformed the South after the Civil War. Newly freed slaves gained the right to vote, own property, and get elected to offices once reserved for white men. Two African-Americans were elected to the Senate in the late 19th century, and over 600 served in state legislatures and as judges and sheriffs.

Random racial terror was one of the ways white supremacists seized power.

White supremacists often went after people who were political leaders in a community: ministers, union organizers and people with wealth and property who could inspire others to demand their civil and economic rights, according to a report from the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit group behind the recent opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is dedicated to the victims of lynching.

"Each lynching sent messages to blacks: Do not register to vote. Do not apply for a white man's job, according to one essay on the Jim Crow era.

It was racial politics by other means -- like today, Anderson says.

When elected leaders suppress votes, engage in partisan gerrymandering or decimate unions, they are doing what white supremacists did during the lynching era: trying to keep nonwhites in a subordinate position, Anderson says.

"Most of the lynchings were about black people who didn't know 'their place,' '' Anderson says. "They didn't get off the sidewalk when a white person was walking toward them. They looked directly at a white person instead of (at) their feet. They didn't show the proper level of deference -- 'place' was absolutely essential."

Both use the same language to dehumanize their victims

Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who murdered nine people in 2015 in a Charleston, South Carolina church, said he did it because blacks are prone to violence and white people were "being murdered daily in the streets."

This is a common theme of white supremacy -- reducing nonwhites to a subhuman level through language.

It's why critics point out the dangers of commentators and politicians referring to an "invasion" by Central American immigrants. It's why people criticized President Trump for calling some Mexican immigrants "rapists." USA Today recently published a story examining the language Trump uses to describe immigrants -- terms like "predator," "killer," and "animal" -- at his rallies.

The white supremacists of the lynching era used similar language to describe blacks. But they also went after other victims: Latinos were lynched, as were Chinese laborers and Jews.

Black men were a fixation, though. They were described as brutes, animalistic, rapists. One writer described the typical black man as "a monstrous beast, crazed with lust."

An estimated 4,700 people were murdered by lynching between 1882 and 1968, according to the NAACP.

They weren't only hanged. They were also shot, tortured, burned alive or beaten to death by mobs.

Random racial terror is what defined lynchings -- not a noose.

The cruelty is still hard to comprehend. Lynch mobs mutilated bodies and collected body parts as souvenirs -- all while taking pictures of the corpses and sending them as postcards to friends.

Stroupe, though, understands some of that hatred. He once absorbed some of it. He grew in a white family in segregated Arkansas during the lynching era. Today he is a civil rights activist who leads anti-racism workshops and previously led an interracial church that was recognized by Time magazine and the Christian Science Monitor for its work against racism.

But he remembers how he was taught when he was young to think of nonwhites.

"My earlier memory was that people of dark skin were not human beings like us," he says. "I was inculcated with it. We felt like lynching was like killing a dog. I hate to say it that way. It wasn't like we thought we were killing another human being. I never participated in it but I understood that black people had to be put and kept in their place because they couldn't do life like we could."

Both are encouraged by the same type of political leaders

He was a racist in the White House whose words empowered white supremacists and enraged civil rights leaders.

We're talking, of course, about Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States.

Wilson helped revive the Ku Klux Klan by praising one of the most racist movies ever made, "The Birth of a Nation." The film portrayed black lawmakers who came to power in the late 19th-century South as buffoonish, dim-witted men lusting after white women. The KKK was depicted as heroes.

"It's like writing history with lightning," he reportedly said of the film. "My only regret is that it is all so terribly true."

In celebrating the film Wilson endorsed its message "that black people were not able to have political power and needed white people to put them in their place," Stroupe says. "Like the President we have now, he sort of encouraged white supremacy."

Other politicians weren't much better. The NAACP and other groups spent decades urging federal lawmakers to pass anti-lynching laws. Congress debated more than 200 anti-lynching bills in the first half of the 20th century without passing any. Opponents of the bills often described them as an infringement on states' rights.

The Senate finally passed a law making lynching a federal crime -- last year.

Politicians then and now "feigned helplessness" when asked to stop white-supremacist violence or changed the subject, Anderson says.

"You had this crazy kind of both-siderism," she says. "So that when anti-lynching bills were coming through Congress, you would have Southern Democrats like James Byrnes out of South Carolina saying things like, 'Yeah what about murders in New York City? What about the violence in the North?' Stop me if this sounds familiar."

Today many Republican leaders have been criticized by those who say they enable white supremacist violence by refusing to confront race-based domestic terrorism or condemn Trump for his racist statements.

These white politicians are as morally bankrupt as overt racists because they know better but do nothing, Stroupe says.

"It's why Trump doesn't do it now -- that's where the votes are," he says. "Even if they didn't believe in white supremacy, they weren't going to lose votes over it."

The kind of America people want?

It's hard to imagine the random racial terror from the lynching era ever becoming routine again. But maybe it already has.

One former white nationalist told The Atlantic he is shocked to see the impact of racist thinking on American popular culture. And he said the worst is yet to come.

"I never thought we would have a social and political climate that really kind of brought it to the foreground," Christian Picciolini told an interviewer. "Because it's starting to seem less like a fringe ideology and more like a mainstream ideology."

In the past two years white supremacists have killed Muslim students in a North Carolina apartment, Jewish worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue and a South Asian man in a Kansas bar. And, of course, there's the recent shooting in El Paso. It's getting hard to keep up.

Anderson believes such violence will keep happening if Trump is re-elected.

"If he gets in power again it sends the signal that this is the kind of America that people wanted," she says.

If that kind of America sounds far-fetched, consider another tweet that showed up on the thread Anderson noticed. When a Latina woman was asked how her life changed after El Paso, she responded with two words: "Mississippi, Goddamn."

That's the name of a fiery protest song written during the lynching era by the black singer Nina Simone.

She sang:

Can't you see it

Can't you feel it

It's all in the air

I can't stand the pressure much longer...

Lord have mercy on this land of mine

We all gonna get it in due time

I don't belong here.

I don't belong there.

I've even stopped believing in prayer.

Simone wrote that song in part to protest the murder of four black girls by white supremacists in a Birmingham, Alabama, church. She wrote it in 1964, near the end of the lynching era.

Yet for many Americans who hear those words today, here is an awful thought:

She could have written that song yesterday.

[aion-rsa]

Peacemaker: The White Dragon Has a Deep Suicide Squad Connection

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This article contains Peacemaker spoilers.

Auggie Smith’s menacing racism somehow gets taken to the next level pays off in Peacemaker episode 7, as Chris’s terrible dad re-dons his White Dragon costume and gets to work. But…the White Dragon of Peacemaker is fairly different from the White Dragon in the comics. And for that matter, so is Peacemaker’s father. What are we talking about? Let’s break it down.

NAZIS. I HATE THESE GUYS.

In the comics, Christopher Smith was born in Austria to an American mother, Elizabeth Lewis, and a respectable German expat businessman father, Wolfgang Schmidt. Except he wasn’t respectable at all. He was Nazi garbage, the former head of a Polish concentration camp who fled when Germany’s loss became clear. And when that information was about to become public, Schmidt took his own life rather than face punishment for his crimes. Of course, being the piece of trash that he was, Schmidt killed himself in front of his five year old son. In his SS uniform.

This caused predictable psychological problems in Christopher, turning him into a vigilante supersoldier dedicated to peace through any means, including killing a whole bunch of people.

WILLIAM HELL 

White Dragon, on the other hand, has a long history with the Suicide Squad. Maybe longer than Peacemaker’s. While Smith didn’t become an official member of the Squad until DC’s current, Infinite Frontier era, as a member of the late ‘80s DC clandestine universe, Peacemaker and Task Force X had plenty of run-ins. Problem is, White Dragon was one of the first villains introduced in John Ostrander, Kim Yale, and Luke McDonnell’s definitive run, first appearing in Suicide Squad #4 in 1987. 

William Heller posed as street-level vigilante…uh…William Hell (he’s not particularly creative). Despite his costume making him look like a white supremacist Shining Knight, Hell would bust up crimes in Central City and hold the criminals until the grateful police would arrive and finish off the arrest. Only he wasn’t holding all of the criminals – just the Black and Latino ones. The white criminals he caught, he would send to the headquarters of the local Aryan Empire group. It should be noted that the cops were mostly cool with this arrangement – when the criminals the police were arresting tried to point out that there were other people in on the robbery with them, they were summarily ignored. Heller was an awful person, and he was exposed and brought down by the Squad. Later, he would return with a new identity and a new costume. The White Dragon first came back trying to kill the descendants of the Justice Society before himself being forced into the Suicide Squad. And like any good Suicide Squad member, he got blown up trying to rebel against Waller. 

In any case, as far as we know, he didn’t have any kids…and certainly none of them were Peacemaker. But White Dragon’s inclusion here is another way that Peacemaker showrunner James Gunn has found to honor that classic run DC’s Suicide Squad comics.

AUGGIE SMITH

The DCEU’s Peacemaker seems to be drawing a little from both sources for his backstory. Auggie Smith has a lot of William Heller in him – but between the shockingly comics-accurate costume and  the very American white supremacy, Auggie has a lot of William Hell in him.

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But there’s a hint of tragedy in the way Schmidt’s death in front of his son traumatized the boy that the show seems to have grafted onto Peacemaker’s dead brother, adding a layer of pathos that doesn’t really exist in the comics character.

Don’t get me wrong: comics Peacemaker is still a monumental disaster of a person, and it’s very messed up that a five year old kid would have to experience that at all, even if his father deserved it. But shifting that burden even more firmly onto Christopher and making the person who died not objectively deserve it makes the already heartily cylindrical John Cena even more three dimensional.

DISTURBING THE PEACE

There’s one other dad Peacemaker had in the comics who we should probably touch on. Comics legend Garth Ennis took a stab, with Garry Brown and Lee Loughridge, at giving Chris a fleshed out origin story. If you’ve ever read an Ennis superhero book (besides Hitman), you can probably guess how deeply screwed up Peacemaker: Disturbing the Peace is. 

The book takes us from his parents’ murder-suicide, where a 10 year old Chris walks in on his folks hung and in an oven, with his siblings in the washing machine and the microwave; through his sort of kidnapping at the hands of Slinky and Skooter, the Bonnie-and-Clyde-on-oxy who kill his foster parents in a bank robbery and then become Smith’s first victims when he sics the cops on them; and then into his tenure in American Special Forces, where he takes it on himself to root out all the crooked colleagues who have the misfortune of serving with him.

Smith’s multiple father figures didn’t really factor into the dad on the show, though, as they’re more loose sketches than characters. The first one we find out about (who is later referred to as his stepfather but might just be an editing error) was apparently a disaster – constantly unfaithful, terrible with money, all of the broadly drawn bad Dad stereotypes you’d expect from an Ennis book. The second one was killed off panel by the third: Skooter, a Natural Born Killers parody who has the interiority of a sheet of paper.

The post Peacemaker: The White Dragon Has a Deep Suicide Squad Connection appeared first on Den of Geek.

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UCLA Professor: Latinos Deserve Reparations, Too!

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The national conversation about giving reparations to African-Americans descended from slavery is more or less dead in the water, but that isn’t stopping some progressives from demanding reparations for other racial minorities. In a new book called “Latinos: A New Story of American Racism,” UCLA Professor Laura Gomez not only makes the case that “Latinos” is an invented race meant to further codify white supremacy, she also argues that there are ways that Americans can pay back that racism by delivering various forms of reparations to the Hispanic community.

In an interview with UCLA to promote the book, Gomez said, “Thankfully, we’re talking a lot more about reparations to African Americans. I think that’s a long-overdue conversation. How do we repair the damage that racism has done?

“Because of the way that American military, government, and corporations infiltrated Central America and destroyed the indigenous way of life, and slaughtered so many people,” she continued, “people in Central America should get asylum here, like we had asylum for the Vietnamese, for Cubans. We must allow those folks in.”

Gomez continued, saying that the U.S. could give amnesty to illegal aliens as a way to give back to the Latino people.

“Another is amnesty, a pathway to citizenship for undocumented persons who are here, have not committed violent crimes, and can prove that they’ve been here for a certain amount of time,” she said. “Again, we’re looking at a different story of anti-Latino racism. And so what does that suggest in terms of what we might do as a society to make amends, repair the relationship, and bring people into the fold as full-fledged Americans.”

Unsurprisingly, progressive professors from other universities have fallen all over themselves to praise Gomez for the ideas contained in her book.

“Gómez also reveals the nefarious roles the United States has played in Latin America—from military interventions and economic exploitation to political interference—that, taken together, have destabilized national economies to send migrants northward over the course of more than a century,” said Brigham Young University’s James-David Gonzalez. “It’s no coincidence that the vast majority of Latinos migrate from the places most impacted by this nation’s dirty deeds, leading Gómez to a bold call for reparations.”

We would certainly agree that it’s “no coincidence” that the vast majority of migrants come from countries to which it is possible to travel to the U.S. by land, but that’s hardly a condemnation of U.S. policy in Latin America.

Anyway, this strikes us as just another round of racial grievance politics, another attempt to divide the country by race, and another excuse to get progressive policies pushed through by yelling “whites are racist” in the most academic-friendly tones possible. If this is the Democratic Party’s big idea to keep Latinos from fleeing to the other party, they may want to reconsider.