#mainly asian women

[wallyslinda]

i actually didn't expect there's so many jayroses on tumblr omfg? finally my people.

anyway, still though let's be real. if rose was a white person (white man) this ship would've been more popular lmao ppl just don't like if their favorite male characters have canon female (character of color) love interests who are equally if not more powerful.

[getosugurusbangs]

a flower named “you”

[beeribas]

Hot take: we don't need another sad white boy in media. I swear to the gods if I see one more sad white guy whose abuser is a BIPOC/BIPOC coded man I'm gonna commit arson. Most aren't bad story wise, but the trope is horrible for so many reasons and I am so tired of seeing it.

[thatonegaybrit]

; happy pride to everyone ! And I mean everyone. All of you. Even the ones that aren't usually mentioned !!?

; including but not limited to:

BIPOC queers

Disabled queers

Neurodivergent queers

Closeted people

People in countries it's extremely illegal to be queer ( stay safe, it'll be okay !! )

People in unsupportive families ( stay safe, you'll find family / friends who support you, I promise <3 )

Trans folk who haven't and / or have no desire to medically transition

Xenogender users

Neopronoun users

People who use " conflicting " labels like being masc-aligned and a lesbian

Aroallo people ( exclusionists be damned,, you are valid !! )

Intersex people who are AFAB / AMAB

Intersex people in general

Queer people who don't fit their stereotypes ( i.e. Fem lesbian, masc gay, non-androgynous enby )

Black trans women who continue to be masculinized and misgendered ( you are a woman !! A beautiful one at that. )

Gay asian men who are fetishized ( you're not a fetish !! )

Old queer people who are forgotten / underrepresented

Alternative people who are queer ( mainly black / non-white ppl .. But also all of you !! Valid !! )

People who use uncommon microlabels and are always forgotten

Plus-sized queers !!

People who didn't realize they were LGBTQIA+ until much later in life

People who aren't out and proud and are actually having lots of doubts,, it's okay to have doubts !! You're still valid !!

Transmascs / transfems who don't specifically identify as a man / woman

People who are religious and queer

; and everyone else who's often excluded / forgotten !! You're a part of this community and you're so so valid and you deserve to enjoy pride month too ! However you do so. :]

; brief caps tw below this <33

; HAPPY PRIDE MONTH <3

; pt: HAPPY PRIDE MONTH <3 :end pt

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Hedy Lamarr (Samson and Delilah, Ziegfeld Girl)—Look. I'm sure someone has already submitted Hedy Lamarr because she was spectacularly beautiful, and a very strong lady too: she fled both an abusive marriage AND nazi persecution at a very young age and rebuilt a life for herself pursuing her love for acting all on her own!! Her career as an actress was stellar; while she began acting outside of Hollywood (her very first movie, Ecstasy, won a prize at the Venice Film Festival), she conquered American hearts very quickly with her first movie in the US, Algiers, and then just kept getting better and better. If all this isn't enough, she was also an inventor: her invention of the frequency-hopping spread spectrum radio transmission technique forms the base of bluetooth and has a lot of applications in all kinds of communication technologies. I think that deserves a prize, don't you?

Anna May Wong (The Thief of Bagdad, Shanghai Express)—Wong was the first Chinese American movie star, arguably the first Asian woman to make it big in American films. Though the racism of the time often forced her into stereotypical roles, awarded Asian leading roles to white actors in yellowface, and prohibited on-screen romance between actors of different races, she delivered powerful and memorable performances. When Hollywood bigotry got to be too much, she made movies in Europe. Wong was intellectually curious, a fashion icon, and a strong advocate for authentic Asian representation in cinema. And, notably for the purposes of this tournament, absolutely gorgeous.

We are in the quarterfinals of the Hot & Vintage Movie Women Tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Propaganda is not my own and is on a submission basis. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Hedy Lamarr:

The only person you can find both on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in the Inventor's Hall of Fame--her radio-frequency-hopping technology forms the basis for cordless phones, wi-fi, and a dozen other aspects of modern life. She was also passionate in her efforts to aid the Allies in WWII (unsurprising for a Jewish-Austrian Emigree to America), and her name served as the backbone for one of the best running jokes in what is possibly Mel Brooks' best movie. Look, Louis B. Mayer apparently believed he could plausibly promote her as "The world's most beautiful woman". Is an entire website full of people going to be less audacious than one Louis B. Mayer? I didn't think so!

Described as "Hedy has the most incredible personal sophistication. She knows the peculiarly European art of being womanly; she knows what men want in a beautiful woman, what attracts them, and she forces herself to be these things. She has magnetism with warmth, something that neither Dietrich nor Garbo has managed to achieve" by Howard Sharpe, she managed to escape her controlling husband (and Nazi Germany) by a) Disguising as her maid and fleeing to Paris or b) Convincing the husband to let her wear all of her jewelry to a dinner, only to disappear afterwards. Also she was particularly clever and helped develop Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (I can't really explain it but anyway...)

Her depiction of Delilah and Samson and Delilah just lives rent free in my head. The woman was gorgeous.

One of the most beautiful women ever in film, spoken by many critics and fans. Beautiful shapely figure, deeper seductive voice, and often played femme fatale roles. She was also brilliant and an inventor. Mainly self-taught, she invested her spare time, including on set between takes, in designing and drafting inventions, which included an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a flavored carbonated drink, and much more.

Gorgeous and brilliant pioneer of modern technology and the middle part.

Anna May Wong propaganda:

"She so so gorgeous!! Due to Hollywood racism she was pretty limited in the roles she got to play but even despite that she’s so captivating and deserves to be known as a leading lady in her own right!! When she’s on screen in Shanghai Express I can’t look away, which is saying something because Marlene Dietrich is also in that film."

"SHE IS ON THE BACK OF QUARTERS also she was very smart and able to speak multiple languages and is a fashion icon on top of the acting/singing"

"Paved the way for Asian American actresses AND TOTAL HOTTIE!!! She broke boundaries and made it her mission to smash stereotypes of Asian women in western film (at the time, they were either protrayed them as delicate and demure or scheming and evil). In 1951, she made history with her television show The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first-ever U.S. television show starring an Asian-American series lead (paraphrased from Wikipedia). Also, never married and rumor has it that she had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. We love a Controversial Queen!"

"She's got that Silent Era smoulder™ that I think transcends the very stereotypical roles in which she was typically cast. Also looks very hot smouldering opposite Marlene Dietrich in "Shanghai Express"; there's kiss energy there."

"Hot as hell and chronically overlooked in her time, she's truly phenomenal and absolutely stunning"

"A story of stardom unavoidably marred by Hollywood racism; Wong's early-career hype was significantly derailed by the higher-up's reluctance to have an Asian lead, and things only got worse when the Hayes code came down and she suddenly *couldn't* be shown kissing a white man--even if that white man was in yellowface. After being shoved into the Dragon Lady role one too many times, she took her career to other continents for many years. Still, she came back to America eventually, being more selective in her roles, speaking out against Asian stereotypes, and in the midst of all of this finding the time to be awarded both the title of "World's Best Dressed Woman" by Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York and an honorary doctorate by Peking University."

"Incredible beauty, incredible actress, incredible story."

"-flapper fashion ICON. look up her fits please <3 -rumors of lesbianism due to her Close Friendships with marlene dietrich & cecil cunningham, among others -leveraged her star power to criticize the racist depictions of Chinese and Asian characters in Hollywood, as well as raise money and popular support for China & Chinese refugees in the 1930s and 40s. -face card REFUSED to decline"

[herpsandbirds]

Hello! Since March 8th is International Women’s Day, I was wondering if you might share with us some females from various species? (Since the more vibrant males tend to get the spotlight lol)

International Women’s Day!!!

Yes yes yes! With many animals, the females are more impressively large or more colorful than the males. Let's have a look at some impressive and amazing females...

(Southern) Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus), female, family Boidae, Ecuador

With many snakes, the females get to be much larger than the males. Female Anacondas grow to be the heaviest snakes in the world, as up to 97.5 kg (214 lb 15 oz).

Though reports have claimed that Green Anacondas can grow up to over 30 ft long, the longest ever ACTUALLY measured was about 19 ft. long.

photograph by Alejandro Arteaga Advance Wildlife Education

Brahminy Blindsnake aka Flowerpot Snake (Indotyphlops braminus), family Typhlopidae, found in tropical and subtropical areas around the world

This snake is native to somewhere along the Indian Ocean, possibly somewhere in SE Asia or coastal Africa.

The fossorial (burrowing) snake feeds mainly on the larvae, pupae, and eggs of ants and termites.

All known specimens of this snake have been female. They reproduce through parthenogenesis (asexually).

photograph via: UGA Coastal Ecology Lab

Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius), female, family Scolopacidae, order Charadriiformes, near Barrow, Alaska, USA

Female Phalaropes are larger and more colorful than the males. They court the males and defend the nest site. The males incubate the eggs, and raise the chicks.

photograph by Mark A. Chappell

Sonoran Spotted Whiptail (Aspidoscelis sonorae), females, family Teiidae, Arizona

This is another all female parthenogentic species.

There are other closely relates species, other whiptails and racerunners, that are also all female populations. Some of them are completely parthenogenic, and some combine parthenogenesis with sexual input from closely related species or populations nearby.

photograph by Tom Brennan

photograph by Forrest Fanning

photograph by Giuseppe Mazza

Asian Yellow-spotted Climbing Toad (Rentapia hosii), females, family Bufonidae, found in SE Asia

The females of this species are large, gorgeous, ornate frogs, while the males are much smaller and much less colorful.

[vhstown]

super short london slang guide !!

i haven't got a scooby doo about cockney so this is mainly gonna be mle and like the way 14 year old secondary school boys talk oookay let's go (just so yk i am a londonder!!!!!)

direct things to call people (or avoid calling people)

bruv, blud, man, mate, fam (can use in replacement of a pronoun like he, she, you and i or for emphasis — "man's got a meeting, bruv!")

more on "man" it can be used in plural too — "us man" or "them man" or "you man"

my g, my guy (for referring someone you are friendly/friends with)

bossman (something you'd call a shop or business owner — "aye bossman get me the 3 wings and chips yeah")

big man (usually used in a sarcastic friendly but kind of demeaning way, the older cousin of "big guy" — "oi big man what you sayin' cuz?"

i wasnt going to put these here cause of personal preference but 😭 people are gonna use them anyway so i might as well tell you what they mean:

peng (adjective cute/pretty — "her? she's peng!")

leng (adjective hot/sexy — "rah, he's leng you know?)

nouns

ting (usually to refer to a girlfriend but can also just mean "thing"... or a knife? — "don't chat to my ting fam!")

grim (very outdated word for a promiscuous woman — "she's a grim bruv!")

skeng (gun)

shank, spinner (knife)

paper, Ps, pronounced "peas" (money)

ends (neighbourhood, area — "if i catch you in my ends yeah")

mandem (group of friends — "having a laugh at the pub with the mandem" aha)

gyaldem (group of women / female friends)

ganja (weed)

blem (cigarette)

pagan/paigon (snitch or untrustworthy person, not a super common you might wanna use "snake" or "snitch" instead)

wasteman (someone who's useless, a lowlife)

pussio/pussyo (pussy, coward)

other common words and phrases

wagwan, or "wag1" in text (what's up, what's going on)

bare (a lot — "i got bare problems with him!")

gassed (prideful, full of yourself — "im actually so gassed, man got promoted"

"and that" (instead of "and stuff" — "i got links and that")

"allow it" (let something slide — "i forgot my wallet allow it bossman")

safe (like "alright cool", or as a bye — "aight safe")

"pattern up" (fix up, get it together)

hard, tight (cool, good, though "hard" is also used in an offensive way — "bro thinks he's hard, pussio")

blam (to get shot, not actually very common to hear in my experience)

sheffed (up), shanked (to get stabbed)

ahlie (used as an interjection when in agreement with something, similar to phrase "am i lying?")

non-mle specific words i hear sometimes

thick (dumb, stupid)

clapped/tapped (ugly, weird, unattractive)

merk/murk (kill, beat up)

slag, sket (slut)

chav (used to refer to someone of the low social status, associated with violent or rude behaviour)

taking the mick, taking the piss (being annoying)

mad (means crazy obviously but people use it a lot, can have positive and negative connotations — "that's mad!")

nonce (literally means pedophile / sex offender, do what you will with it 😭)

dickhead, bellend (similar to douchebag)

wanker (used towards someone you dislike, or in a joking way)

geezer (usually to refer to an old man)

also!!!

depending on which communities are predominant in the area, words from other languages can come in / have come in

some words are common with US slang too because they share origins 😁 ain't that cool

there's a lot of influence from jamaican patois due to the history of british jamaicans in london for ex in words like "ting" or "mandem" or "wagwan" (hence why mle is sometimes referred to as "jafrican") and its not strange to hear "bomboclaat" or "bloodclaat" here either

in communities where there's muslims and arabs (especially in east london) you might hear arabic terms like "wallahi", "khalas" or "astagfirullah" (though people debate whether that's cultural appropriation or not)

south asians have also had an influence with words like "gora" or "ganja" though again this is largely area based and the impact of hinglish is also found a lot outside of london

some people have a mix of different dialects! i mainly alternate between mle and estuary (sometimes yorkshire don't ask it is very easy to pick up...)

you're not gonna hear every single word here all the time the usage varies throughout london. the way north and west londoners speak can be v different for example

uhhhh if you wanna learn properly just listen to some grime or sutn . listen to londoners speak!

for some more resources in-depth PLEASE check out these guides made by other british people ! (one and two)

ok that's it bye bye british ppl & londoners feel free to add on! it is midnight rn so ive probably missed stuff lol... dms are open in case you've got any questions or want any help :p

[tomorrowusa]

A lot of those bros who embraced Trump may soon become incel bros.

Apparently the "4B" movement has crossed the Pacific from South Korea.

To explain 4B, this is from Elle...

McKenna, who did not want her last name published for privacy reasons, first heard about 4B a few months ago, via a TikTok video referring to the South Korean social movement. The basic idea: women swear off heterosexual marriage, dating, sex and childbirth in protest against institutionalized misogyny and abuse. (It is called 4B in reference to these four specific no-nos.) The mostly online movement began around 2018 protests against revenge porn and grew into South Korea’s #MeToo-esque feminist wave. In the wake of Trump’s victory, 4B is once again on McKenna’s mind – and she’s not the only one.

Trump’s embrace of manosphere figures such as Joe Rogan, the Nelk Boys and Adin Ross means he has strong support among their evangelists – mainly, young men. But for young women, the former president’s long history of misogyny means a vote for Trump is a vote against feminism, especially with reproductive rights as a key issue in 2024. Ahead of the US election, pundits predicted a history-making gender gap, and early exit polls support that prediction: women aged 18-29 went overwhelmingly left, while Trump picked up ground with their male counterparts compared with 2020. With the race called, TikToks viewed hundreds of thousands of times offered one way for women to go for the jugular: 4B, specifically cutting off contact with men. “Girls it’s time to boycott all men! You lost your rights, and they lost the right to hit raw! 4b movement starts now!” one creator wrote on TiKTok in a video viewed 3.4m times.

B4 began in South Korea to protest blatant misogyny. It grew when South Korean bros helped to elect a misogynistic president.

In South Korea, 4B began as an offshoot of national protests against the spycam epidemic, in which perpetrators filmed targets – most of whom were women – during sex or while urinating in public bathrooms without their knowledge or consent. “These videos were sold and exchanged by men on Discord, and women didn’t know how many men had taken part, and if any of the men in their lives had,” said Min Joo Lee, an assistant professor of Asian studies at Occidental College. “There was a general sense of, ‘Who can I trust? And before I regain my trust in men, I need to refrain from contact with them.’”

Voyeurism is something Trump is famous for.

4B happens at a time South Korea is experiencing a drop in its fertility rate. So women are operating from a position of strength. Of course fertility fanatic Elon Musk is appalled by B4.

South Korea’s fertility struggle caught the attention of the vehement Trump ally Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO has at least 11 living children (one son died in infancy in 2002). He describes pronatalism, the enthusiastic promotion of reproduction, as a way to save humanity from “population collapse”. When Taylor Swift came out in support of Kamala Harris this summer, he seemingly offered, creepily and unprompted, to get her pregnant. He’s propped up South Korea’s declining fertility rate as a case study for Americans who do not get busy making babies. Consider Musk an archetypical 4B foe. He’s far from the only one. Far-right figures such as Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist who has praised Hitler and once described his “ideal wife” as 16 years old, celebrated on X after Trump’s win, tweeting, “I’d just like to take the opportunity to thank men for saving this country from stupid bitches who wanted to destroy the world to keep abortion,” and, “Your body, my choice. Forever.” That sort of violent rhetoric, which is spreading among Trump’s far-right supporters, will not exactly convince the majority of young American women they should be dating at the moment.

Musk's worry about "population collapse" is contrived and probably racist. What he really wants is higher white fertility.

We're in no danger of our species going extinct unless we make the planet unlivable. There are currently 8.1 billion humans. Even if that were cut in half, that would leave us with more humans than there were in 1974; they seemed to do just fine back then with ABBA and Gerald Ford.

So women, do whatever it takes to secure your rights. At the very least, discriminate in favor of guys who donated to Harris-Walz before November 5th.

[cardboardheartss]

Hi, now since the election results are out. Can I ask like what will he the results after this if it makes sense. Is it going to get better or worse? I mean are there still any chances of seeing light? 🥲☝🏻

United States of America for the next 4 years under President Donald Trump Reading.

Overall affect on the USA

The Sun, KNoC rx, KNoS rx, The Lovers rx, KoS, 7oS rx, 10oW rx, 8oS, Empress

- what have y’all voted for?

I see that many people are going to regret voting for him! Like a lot of people! Mainly the ones who were boasting about it on social media and with people around them in general. It seems like Trump will also be deliberately and intentionally say very foul things about the people, I think I’m leaning heavily towards POC’s.

Looking at this… I do get the feeling that Trump will be implementing Project 2025. Seems like he is relied up, and really wants to get this project started. The lovers card… this could mean that, the first rule he implements could be toward the LGBTQIA + community and maybe one of the other rules, can also lead to the decline of relationships, mainly male and female relationships.

Even during his power, we will come across MAGA supporters who will still believe everything and anything Trump says, as they put him on a really high pedestal. OR! We could see more celebs, mainly leaning towards more Male celebrities in particular who will be exposed for endorsing Trump for these elections and help him gain connections for the ‘Red Mirage.’

Looks like whatever Trump is passing for the Project 2025 is going to be putting Americans through a lot of pain and exhaustion. Expect many people to work low wage jobs for income, getting sick from overwork and etc. I know this usually indicates a card for standing for oneself, but this just speaks volumes of how tired and restless Americans will be after protesting and fighting for the next 4 years.

My fellow American women… looking at these cards. You all will be the main targets and at a higher detriment to be honest. It seems like Trump is definitely going to seriously enforce Anti-Abortion laws, and it seems like if you go against it, you will be locked up or deal with serious consequences. With that being said, more kids will be born, but will be unloved and will not be used to the natural “Motherly affection.” that many of us were lucky to have. It’s really not looking good, for you guys specifically. Another thing, if any female experiences Rape or any abuse, there could be some issues with gaining justice because, whatever Trump implemented, it’s not going to benefit any female.

White Americas for the Next Four Years

PoW, 9oS rx, KoW rx, 6oW rx, The Moon rx, 2oP

The more Trump speaks, the more they’ll regret it. They could possibly feel the same pain that Democratic Black/POC voters feel right now. I see this could also be heavily influenced by the Anti-Abortion laws because even they themselves will not get an upper hand in this and will be like everyone else. I see that many White Americans are going to suffer financially, and will have to rely on buying cheaper stuff in general just for the sake of saving more money.

Hispanics/Latinas for the Next Four Years

3oC, QoW, PoS rx, The Emperor, 3oS, 7oC

I see in the beginning, as we have witnessed today. Many of them are Pro-Trump, and they are really proud of it, and I don’t see that ending anytime soon. They will still be proud of the decision they made, because I’m sorry, and no offense, but they all have their heads stuck in the clouds.

I also get the feeling that, when Trumps 4-years are over, they’re going to be a bit heartbroken and will have to obviously re-elect again, and I see them struggling to pick the right party for themselves. A lot of division still I see…

Asian Americans for the Next Four Years

The Magician, The Tower, The Star rx, PoP, QoP rx, KoP, QoS, AoP, QoC, 6oS, Judgement, 3oP

Woah?! It seems like there could be an end of rising Asian celebs in America? I see that Trump may ensure some cut ties between the industry and Asian people. I see that someone may be paid off to actually do this. Oddly enough, I see a fued between two Asian nationalities, or that some Republicans will somehow pay Asian countries or other countries to take back their people?

And I actually do see that happening. Many Asian Americans will be moving away from America and find other countries to relocate to, but I see many rejections from those countries. I believe they’ll reject them because, they’ll want to give the same energy back from what they receive from Asians themselves when traveling.

Or they could face rejection from their own kind in the Asian continent.

Arabs for the Next Four Years

WoF, 2oW rx, 3oW rx, 4oC rx, Strength, 5oS rx

It seems a bit moderate. I see that they really won’t have much luck in general, I see that initially they believe they made the right choice for voting for Trump. As time progresses, they’ll slowly regret their choice for Trump. I see that there could be a rise of Islamophobia and racism towards them, and they’ll actually all sit and realize what exactly African Americans have been complaining for, for decades and will understand how much work it takes to fight for your race and safety.

African Americans for the Next Four Years

10oC rx, 10oS, AoC rx, 4oW, The Hierophant, 8oP rx, 5oC, 7oP rx, The Chariot, KoC rx, Justice

Obviously… never ending cycle of racism and divided communities. I do see that many families will still be made, but the connections and the energies will not be positive at all. Many Black men will conform to whatever is being said by the Republicans. This will lead to a lot of conflict and anger, and many Black people will be dissatisfied with these type of Black People.

There will be a delay in their businesses, and more of them will be held back and forced to not work. The government will truly be working against them thee most. Oh and the Justice system… will not be for any of them. Which is why, it is important, MAINLY NOW, for Black people to have their own proof and evidence because if not, the judge will 10000% throw them in jail.

So get your own little dash cams, recording devices and space for any video proof just in case you’re in danger.

Native Americans for the Next Four Years

KNoP rx, The Devil, PoC rx

No progression at all! I see they’ll still be gambling, and relying on Government money. It’s possible that Trump will decrease the amount that they need. There will still be struggles with drug/alcohol addiction, and issues with relationships, and still high rates of women and children going missing. A lot of broken dreams and trauma just being passed down from one to another.

Continuations of people affected

Muslim Americans

Palestine + Non-Voters + Third Party Voters

Well… that was one stressful reading. I was getting headaches thee entire time. Apart from that, this reading is quite saddening you know. I just don’t understand how the world can still be so Anti-Black and misogynistic?

EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN had the opportunity, right now to have elected Mrs Kamala Harris as the 47th President of the USA, but no! Everyone chose who?? Trump! Now look what’s going to happen to everyone?

I am praying and hoping that this will be a wake up call for every single one of you, to just put race and gender aside and vote for your rights! Now look, the women and marginalized groups are going to suffer!

Wishing you all thee bestest of luck, and from a completely different continent, I apologize to my fellow gays and women. It’s truly going to be a hard time for you all.

Please! Choose wisely everyone!💙🥺

[prettybtchhh]

jjk boys and what i think would be their type • ₊°✧︡ ˗ ˏ ˋ ♡ ˎˊ ˗

| 𝐠𝐨𝐣𝐨 |

i feel like he would probably be into petite brunettes. he likes women with athletic bodies that take care of themselves and work out regularly. he likes long and wavy hair, and he would always run his fingers through it.

| 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐨 |

definitely likes women with long, straight, black hair. he enjoys seeing it shine under the sun light. i feel like he would be into asian women, or at least he would be attracted by those kind of features. soft and rosy lips, cat eyes and small noses. he probably prefers skinny girls but he doesn’t mind ‘em thick either.

| 𝐬𝐮𝐤𝐮𝐧𝐚 |

THICK brunettes. he would LOVE to grope at your flesh, squeezing it eagerly. he’s also a slut for dark eyes, so he loves holding eye contact under the sun light when your eyes start shining like pools of honey. i feel like he wouldn’t mind a girl with medium length hair and he LOVES it curly.

| 𝐭𝐨𝐣𝐢 |

definitely BLONDES. i feel like he would be super into slim-thick blondes. he’s into gym girls obviously, mainly because he would love to work out with you and flex in the meantime. he likes lifting you just to show you how buff and strong he is. he likes very straight hair and he has a soft spot for ponytails. he would also always stare at your butt and slap it at any given chance lol.

| 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐨 |

so i feel like choso would be both into blondes and brunettes. he’s the type of guy who mainly focuses on your eyes. in fact, that’s the first thing that catches his attention in a girl. he LOVES seeing how your lashes flutter so innocently at him, it turns him on. he also loves braids, and he would help you do your hair anytime. he also brings you flowers that he personally picked so that you can put them on your hair. he would do anything for his princess.

all rights reserved!

[zhellers]

now i wanna know your face claims for all of bh 🥺

really exposing my ass over here cause you'll probably recognize them in my art afterwards

For Imogen i use Saffron Vadher. She fits my criteria that the people of marquet look either south asian or middle eastern. What made me pick her is really her mouth and nose, I do tend to make Imogen's face a tad longer than hers tho.

Laudna is more broad, i'll often use eastern european women and just remove all buccal fat lol. Anyone with a larger nose and deeper set eyes fit to me

Orym gets Kit butler, mainly for the way his nose bridge tapers into his brow line, I also like his square head

For Dorian I knew i wanted someone native american or mexican to reflect Robbie's heritage, i often use Booboo Stewart as a base with a bit of Billy Wirth in there

Chetney is another broad one, My main thing is that i wanted him to actually look old. Too many people give him just smile lines and a few forehead wrinkles and call it a day. Don't be scared! Wrinkles are actually very fun to draw once you get started. I mainly use these random busts i found on pinterest

Finally Braius! still working it out but young Peter Steele sort of has what i'm looking for. I like his heavy brow bone and strong chin. His body type sort of fits too

[olderthannetfic]

https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/757354383894790144/httpswwwtumblrcomolderthannetfic757095427492#notes

Oh my God, you catapulted me back into some POC but especially black shipping "etiquette" from the bad times on tumblr.

"Black tops are bad bc it plays into the narrative of black people being aggressive and violent." "Black bottoms are bad bc it plays into the narrative of being subservient and lesser than. (Esp with white top)" "Black women dating white men is bad bc it plays into the narrative black men bad/abusive, and white savior complex." "Black women dating black men bad, because you imply black people should only date other black people." "Shipping light black characters plays into colorism, and that dark black people are less desirable." "Shipping the dark black characters plays into the narrative that black people are more promiscuous and sexual." (Second verse same as the first) "Making a bisexual character plays into the narrative that black people are more promiscuous and sexual." "Making an asexual character creates the narrative that black people aren't allowed to experience romance, and love."

On and on and on and on... dumb shit side of tumble has breached containment!

Also remember some for Asian characters: "Asian male bottoms plays into the narrative that Asian men aren't masculine." "Asian women dating (anyone not Asian) plays into the narrative of subservience." "Asian women only dating Asian men (and excluding other POC men) plays into the stereotype of Asian racism." "Asian women being kinky plays into orientalist fetish fantasies." "Asian male characters dating (anyone not Asian) plays into the narrative of feminizing Asian masculinity." "Asian women being strong plays into the dragon lady stereotype." "Asian women being weak plays into the lotus damsel stereotype." (Both of them being basically just the femme fatale and damsel in distress BS from old movie times, but with an #Asian twist.) Mainly remember these two, but there were so many more of these types of passive aggressive and poorly thought through "Etiquette" guides.

--

[error501blog]

Race, Live-Action Casting, and Ninjago

I'll start by saying something everyone can agree on.

No Chris Pratt.

Now that's out of the way I want to state my purpose for this rant. It's to spark discussion. I want to hear other people's ideas and perspectives. I'm one Asian American out of literal billions. I know after typing everything out I'll feel bad, but this feels like a discussion the fandom needs to address. Every perspective is worth considering and thinking through.12

I'm not worried about the casting. Warner Bros. is a big studio that doesn't want any negative press. At least, Kai and Nya are going to be Asian. I'm worried about the other Ninja, mainly Lloyd. But I think the studio doesn't want to be cancelled, so that's not my number one worry. My number one worry is Garmadon. If Garmadon is in the movie, will his skin be literally black? his can be sidestepped if Garmadon isn't included period. But the Hagemans love their emo dad. Still, I don't want blackface Garmadon.

My theory is the casting will have a similar model to what Avatar did in it's live action. There were white voice actors, now they're played by a diverse cast. Kiawentiio is amazing, but not as tan as Katara was in the animated series. (That's a discussion within itself) There was a controversy with Ian Ousley. I'm not going to get into those topics, but they did happen.

However, the worry for many comes from the fact Ninjago is more racially ambiguous than Avatar: The Last Airbender. Almost all the characters-with exceptions being the Water Tribes and Sun Warriors-are Asian. Avatar: The Last Airbender has characters with a variety of skin tones and facial features. Ninjago has almost all of it's characters with yellow skin. Which is typical for LEGO, but feels iffy in an Asian inspired world. The fact everyone has yellow skin lends to an almost race blind world. However, names come from countries. Completely human characters have blond/ginger hair. Lloyd and Master Wu have blond hair. Master Wu is especially weird because he has the aesthetic of the Hollywood wise old Asian martial arts teacher there to help the protagonist. But he's blond.

In a cartoon I can suspend my disbelief. In the show I can't see facial features. Everyone in Ninjago has the same eyes, unless if you're a robot, one of the very few women, or Lloyd. I can live with this in an animated show from the 2010s.

In live action films, there are close-up shots. People will stand next to each other. I know what real life people look like when I'll see the movie. This shouldn't matter to me. I shouldn't care so much, but the history of whitewashing roles in media is too vast. We interpret the world through race.

White is the default in the US. Examples being Ghost in the Shell Warriors TV series. Asian roles for media set in Asia for Asian roles are cast by white people with white people since 1961.

What I want to know is the world of the live action going to be Asian inspired? And the better question: should it?

I don't know.

Ninjago since day 1 has had a tenuous at best relationship with race. It is clearly in an Asian inspired world. Everyone knows Ninjas come from Japan. However, it's just an aesthetic.

The worldbuilding is very Western. If we compare to Avatar again, there is no use of any Asian philosophy in Ninjago. Avatar is chalked full of allusions to Buddhism and Japanese Imperialism. But, Avatar is a more well thought out show than the show where one of the main characters gets sent into another dimension and becomes evil, violates the Geneva convention then is given no acknowledgement and I hate it.

Ninjago when giving us culture that seems Asian inspired to me fails spectacularly. (The Kabuki from Chen's Island. That's a Tumblr rant within itself) The most obvious example being the yin and yang marriage proposals. They have Google! The writers could've gone down an internet rabbit hole for a variety of cultures. But we have this clumsy, "Will you be the Yin to my Yang?" It's stupid and I hate it.

However, Ninjago in the Wildbrain era started to move away from the Asian aesthetic. One could make the argument it started in Rebooted, but I'm saying Wildbrain era to keep this post short. We go to a pyramid in Secrets of Forbidden Spinjitzu. We meet the Ice people from the Never Realm which I think are inspired by the Inuit. I'm not too sure.

Dragon's Rising has done away with any resemblance to Asian culture. Sora is Japanese name, so maybe? But all the resemblance is from the old show. It's a fantasy show. They are a soft reboot. They could make their dragons look like literally anything in this soft reboot and they stick to the Western style ones. It's this big fantasy world, why am I not seeing any allusions Asian folklore?

But can't I blame Ninjago when they fumble so hard when they try. It's a lose lose situation. But research isn't worth it. Is a culture too inconvenient to even research? Because everything seems absorbed from other pieces of American media. Yin Yang has nothing to do with marriage-at least to my knowledge. It has to do with Daoism. There is no research or attempt. The show hasn't done a legitimate attempt in it's full run and that's sad.

We're seeing that when the Hageman brothers write they don't shy away from the Asian aspects of the world. Or maybe there was less understanding of Asian representation when the show first aired so they could do whatever they wanted. (And Wildbrain and Dragons Rising are more popular so have higher stakes if they fuck up too bad) This is racist, but it isn't coming from hatred. It's coming from ignorance. If this came from hatred why make a show about ninjas?

The Hageman brothers have demonstrated ignorance in their writing. I've been saying Asian instead of specific countries because everything is so monolithic in the show. It would be amazing to have this world for a big franchise shown to kids around the globe. (Especially to Americans who might not watch a show with an authentic cultural world if it didn't tie to Ninjago) But that's not going to come from them. It's never going to come from them.

Authentic Asian representation was lost when the writers were picked. I have no doubt there'll be sensitivity readers, but there'll most likely be a cultural erasure. I'm not mad at the Hagemans. I'm not even mad at Hollywood. But I'm disappointed in Warner Bros.

Please respond with your own opinion. If you agree or disagree with any of my points. Hell, if I said something racist let me know. I want this post to get people thinking and talking about their own opinions on casting and writing.

[kikovanitysimmer]

Hi Kiko,

I love your work, you are my favorite sim creator, you have the best hair styles for sims 4 people of color.

I wanted to know if you can make more long natural hair styles - (locs with clips/gold and silver) in different styles for the women in sims 4 :)?

like some long locs with long side bangs

some with clips

different ombre and color options

more edges

hidden scalp, or brown variation of scalps, (brown or black scalp)

I used the gif below to show a example hairstyle that looks different and cool.

-

Hair, clothes, and shoes is most important to me in sims 4.

Thank you for having this option to contact you,

Sincerely,

Nikki

I appreciate your admiration towards my artwork but this is a very disrespectful thing to ask of me. I'm not sure if this is an innocent ask, I don't see how it is because I know you've heard black people ask other cultures to not appropriate our hairstyles but I could be wrong, if this is innocent below are my boundaries, and explanations on why I (Kiko Vanity; I'm not speaking for the whole black community) I'd like to not be asked things like this in the future.

my boundaries and why

I do not make hair for people of color. People of color is a broad way to say people who are not of White/European/Anglo-Saxon phenotypes. That means people of Asian, Hispanic/Latino, African, Mixed-Race, and Aboriginal descent; and I create CC for simmers who appreciate my artwork but mainly and ideally create CC HAIRS for simmers of African descent, (including mixed race if they also have African descent) because of the lack of black hairstyles in the initial release of the game in 2014, with that, these black simmers create sims that also reflect their environments and black upbringings. I make black content if you feel comfortable downloading my content you should be comfortable saying black. I want to stress black and not African-American (despite me being African American) because there are different ethnicities for each race, including black people.

2. I am not currently taking hair requests because I'd get too many at one time and that's not great for my mental health. To piggyback off the last sentence and statement 1, please do not request my cultural hairstyles using someone who doesn't respect our wishes. You may be asking yourself, "why is this an issue? hair is hair?" (look below)

During chattel slavery, every fiber of the enslaved Africans' lives was controlled by the narcissistic people who kidnapped them. including hair, being made to cover their hair, and calling them names & degrading them for their natural hair. As the years went by and slavery ended black people but more specifically black fem presenting people held the shame for their hair. Fast forward to today, even with all the turmoil the world is facing due to greed, classism, and the patriarchy) this is the first time in history that their descendants (me being one of them) can set boundaries and say what we are comfortable with and what we are not comfortable with. And to put this as bluntly as I can:

Do not send me videos/photos/gifs of people culturally appropriating in black people's hairstyles, it's anxiety-inducing.

I'd like to also say I'm not angry because I know there is an angry black person stereotype, this is simply uncomfortable and disheartening. I hope you can respect my wishes if not please feel free to block me.

Lastly,

You don't have to respect or do anything I am saying. You may do as you wish after reading this. Just if you are going to engage with me these are my boundaries.

[youremyheaven]

Jupiter Influence Among Korean Actors

Over the years, I have noticed a distinct pattern in the Korean entertainment industry, where most stars considered to be icons have strong Jupiter influence in their charts. Korean general public prefers celebs with a graceful and elegant image, who also have "duality" (they're cute but fierce) and Jupiter natives are endowed with these charms.

I had already mentioned female Kpop idols & Jupiter influence on a previous post, so, this post will focus mainly on Korean actors.

Song Hye Kyo is arguably the most successful Korean actress of all time. She has been in the top billing for over 20years at this point.

She has Hasta Moon (I had mentioned in another post about how Hasta women are revered for their femininity and grace), Uttarashada Ketu (UA gives one a glamorous image) and Vishaka Mercury Atmakaraka.

Atmakaraka is what signifies our soul's purpose, hers lies in the Jupiterean nak of Vishaka.

In fact, its very common for Korean actors to have their atmakaraka or amatyakaraka in a Jupiter nakshatra.

2. Park Minyoung has Venus in Purvabhadrapada as her atmakaraka

She rose to fame playing a young girl who disguises herself as a guy in order to attend school in ancient Korea. It is her family's dire circumstances that push her to attend school in order to find work. This whole drama is very Jupiter coded and the majority of the cast have strong Jupiter placements as well.

Her most popular drama is What's Wrong With Secretary Kim where she plays the secretary to a CEO who is almost inept without her micromanaging his life. I've noticed that many Jupiter women tend to be in this position where, in whatever relationship dynamic, others don't know what to do in her absence because she often single-handedly runs the whole place and makes it look easy and only in her absence do they realise that its far from easy.

3.Kim Ji-won is Punarvasu moon

One of her best known roles is that of Choi Ae-ra in Fight My Way, which I would say is a very typical Punarvasu character. Punarvasu's enthusiasm, almost childlike behaviour and charm can fit the description of a quintessential Asian romcom protagonist and Choi Ae-ra is a very good example of the same. Her rise from the bottom rung of the ladder to working hard to get where she is, is also a very Jupiterean tale (since Jupiter moon natives go through their Saturn mahadasha as young adults).

4.Kim Go-eun has Punarvasu mercury & ketu

Kim Go-eun's first ever starring role was as Eungyo in the movie of the same name.

It is the story of a teenage girl who becomes the object of desire for a 70yr old poet. The movie is very Punarvasu coded imo. In fact, regarding her casting, the novelist, whose book was adapted to the film, had this to say:

 "She was perfect for the forever virgin and forever young image that Eun-gyo symbolizes."

This is literally the embodiment of Punarvasu energy which makes the native simultaneously sensual and innocent.

5. Gong Hyo Jin has Vishaka moon atmakaraka and mercury in Purvabhadrapada amatyakaraka

Her character in When the Camellia Blooms is very Jupiter coded. Jupiter energy can often be manifest as a kind of innocence and naivete and a tendency to be a goody two-shoes.

6.Shin Min-ah has Saturn in Vishaka as amatyakaraka

Her most well known role would be that of a doctor in Hometown Cha Cha Cha, in which she plays a person who refuses to compromise on her principles/ethics to get ahead in her career and has to end up leaving Seoul for a small town. This is again, very Jupiter coded because Jupiter influence makes natives very righteous and possess a strong sense of integrity.

7.Han So hee is Vishaka sun

She was recently in an MV for Jungkook's song 'Seven' which features a quarrelling couple. I've often noticed that with many famous Vishaka women, fighting with their partner, often publicly seems to become attached to their public image. This could also apply to their relationships becoming controversial in general. Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Lana Del Rey, Jennie etc all have their luminaries in Vishaka with the exception of Lana who has a Vishaka stellium and they've all had relationship drama that caught public attention in a major way.

The role that catapulted Han So Hee to fame was that of a married man's mistress in the drama The World of the Married👀

8. Jung So-min has Purvabhadrapada Sun & Venus (atmakaraka), Punarvasu Moon (amatyakaraka)

in Because This Is My First Life, she plays a broke writer who despite being a good daughter is not appreciated by her family at all, and despite being good at what she does, faces trouble in her workplace and is overall just going through a not so good time . As I've said before, Jupiter natives go through their Saturn Mahadasha as young adults and this phase is a difficult one where they have to work very very hard to get things done and make any kind of progress. Most K-dramas that focus on the adversities of life, as experienced by a 20 something probably has a Jupiter dominant native as its protagonist.

in general, the reason why Jupiter dominant men & women dominate Korean entertainment, be it music or dramas, is because of the kind of content that Korean entertainment focuses on and the kind of people that the Korean public chooses to support. K-Dramas are known for their complex plots, often focusing on people at conflict with their values and ideas, struggling with their conscience, facing life's challenges and overcoming adversity; class struggles, portrayal of wealth/lack of it, rising to the top, underdogs emerging as winners etc. These are inherently Jupiterean.

Even with Korean music, it has a unique system in place where idols have to "train" for several years before they make their debut. Being hardworking and being an "ace" who excels in several areas is prided on in Korea; in such a culture, it makes sense why Jupiter dominants emerge as the ones on the very top of the food chain.

Now, we'll talk about some male actors😋😌

Lee Minho has Mars in Punarvasu & Mercury in Punarvasu (his atmakaraka & amatyakaraka)

Honestly, his entire filmography is very Jupiter coded 🤣 The role that made him a household name was that of rich, spoilt heir to an immensely wealthy family who is the most popular guy in school and leader of his rat pack.

His most successful role is that of a King in the drama The King: Eternal Monarch which is about an ancient Korean emperor who time travels through a portal into modern-day Korea. Both the fact that he's playing nobility as well as the fact that the drama features time travel/alternate reality esque things makes it VERY Punarvasu coded.

(Punarvasu's element is ether and its deity Goddess Aditi is the Mother Goddess and creator the universe itself, many time travel/movies about the nature of reality feature Jupiter natives)

The drama co-stars Kim Go-Eun, who I have already mentioned above as a Punarvasu girlie🥰

2. Gong Yoo is Punarvasu sun (amatyakaraka)

He starred in the movie "Silenced" which was based on a horrifying true story where he plays a teacher at a school who tries to stand up for and protect differently abled children who are routinely subject to extremely cruel and abusive treatment at a boarding school.

Punarvasu natives are known for standing up for others, especially those who do not have a voice/who are unable to stand up for themselves. These natives have a strong sense of justice and empathy and do not think twice about questioning authority.

His character in Coffee Prince is one which made him a household name and in this drama, he plays a chaebol heir who falls for a young guy who is actually a woman disguising herself as a guy 💀I feel like Jupiter men have at least one movie/show in their filmography that is very queer coded (ex: Keanu Reeves, Punarvasu Moon with My Own Private Idaho)

His most well known character is that of Goblin in the drama of the same name, where he plays an immortal who seeks salvation. Very Punarvasu coded.

This is just a personal observation but I've noticed how many Punarvasu men have an androgynous vibe 🥵

3.Kim Woo Bin is Punarvasu sun (atmakaraka) and mercury

His breakout role was that of a wealthy chaebol heir in the drama, The Heirs.

Playing the CEO's son or the CEO, who is initially arrogant and then faces different trials and tribulations and ultimately redeems himself is a common Kdrama trope and I've noticed that the actors picked for these parts the most tend to be Jupiter-dominant.

4.Song Joong Ki has Vishaka moon & saturn (his atmakaraka)

Vishaka is a rakshasa gana nakshatra and I'd previously observed how many mafia movies feature rakshasa gana natives as the main leads. Joong-ki's Vincenzo sees him play a mafia lawyer.

His character is Arthdal Chronicles (featuring fellow Jupiter girlie, Kim Ji Won) is also very Jupiter coded. Its about the birth of civilization and life in the ancient world. Joong Ki plays the leader of his clan.

5.Park Seo Joon has Purvabhadrapada moon (his amatyakaraka)

He is one of those actors who plays himself in every show/movie he does. This means all his characters are charming, slightly awkward or a little dumb, but good natured and caring individuals who go above and beyond for others. This is like a quintessential Jupiter man trope.

Especially his character in Fight My Way, is VERY Jupiter coded and features fellow Jupiter native, Kim Ji-Won.

A slightly stupid but endearingly adorkable guy who works a low end job and trains to be a boxer whilst looking out for his friends and loved ones? Especially his whole side arc with his ex gf on the show is such a Jupiter guy thing; to forgive a woman and be there for her even though she never cared for him and only kept him around because he was sooo nice to her and did everything for her. I've seen this happen with many Jupiter guys because as Claire said in her video these are the nice guys who women keep in the friend zone because even though they're perfect and extremely courteous, women don't feel like they could be a serious partner.

His character in Itaewon Class explores Jupiter in a different way. He is a struggling businessman who is engaged in a long drawn out battle with a chaebol and finally emerges victorious in the end. Despite the chaebol's petty and below the belt tactics, Seo-joon's character always took the high road and held on to his principles and conducted himself with integrity. Jupiter natives are almost always destined to be the bigger person.

6.Park Bogum has Mercury in Punarvasu as his atmakaraka

He rose to fame for playing a motherless prodigy on Reply 1988. His character was a typical Jupiter one; he's very talented, successful and recognised for the same but he takes no pleasure in it and does not really indulge in the privileges it offers him.

His most famous role would be that of a Prince who falls in love with his eunuch (who is actually just a woman pretending to be a eunuch) in the drama Love in the Moonlight. Like I said before, Jupiter guys have at least one queer coded project in their filmography lol.

7.Park Hyung shik has Sun & Mars in Vishaka (his atmakaraka & amatyakaraka)

His most famous role is that of a CEO in the drama Strong Girl Bong Soon.

8.Yoo Ah In has Venus in Vishaka as his atmakaraka and Jupiter in Purvabhadrapada as his amatyakaraka

His character in the movie Burning represents the dark side of Jupiter men.

His drama Chicago Typewriter features him reincarnating in present day Korea after initially living in the 1930s.

Jupiter influence is visible in movies/shows that have tropes of alternate reality, reincarnation, time travel etc.

[ausetkmt]

Where It’s Most Dangerous to Be Black in America

Black Americans made up 13.6% of the US population in 2022 and 54.1% of the victims of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, aka homicide. That works out, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, to a homicide rate of 29.8 per 100,000 Black Americans and four per 100,000 of everybody else.(1)

A homicide rate of four per 100,000 is still quite high by wealthy-nation standards. The most up-to-date statistics available from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show a homicide of rate one per 100,000 in Canada as of 2019, 0.8 in Australia (2021), 0.4 in France (2017) and Germany (2020), 0.3 in the UK (2020) and 0.2 in Japan (2020).

But 29.8 per 100,000 is appalling, similar to or higher than the homicide rates of notoriously dangerous Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. It also represents a sharp increase from the early and mid-2010s, when the Black homicide rate in the US hit new (post-1968) lows and so did the gap between it and the rate for everybody else. When the homicide rate goes up, Black Americans suffer disproportionately. When it falls, as it did last year and appears to be doing again this year, it is mostly Black lives that are saved.

As hinted in the chart, racial definitions have changed a bit lately; the US Census Bureau and other government statistics agencies have become more open to classifying Americans as multiracial. The statistics cited in the first paragraph of this column are for those counted as Black or African American only. An additional 1.4% of the US population was Black and one or more other race in 2022, according to the Census Bureau, but the CDC Wonder (for “Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research”) databases from which most of the statistics in this column are drawn don’t provide population estimates or calculate mortality rates for this group. My estimate is that its homicide rate in 2022 was about six per 100,000.

A more detailed breakdown by race, ethnicity and gender reveals that Asian Americans had by far the lowest homicide rate in 2022, 1.6, which didn’t rise during the pandemic, that Hispanic Americans had similar homicide rates to the nation as a whole and that men were more than four times likelier than women to die by homicide in 2022. The biggest standout remained the homicide rate for Black Americans. 

Black people are also more likely to be victims of other violent crime, although the differential is smaller than with homicides. In the 2021 National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (the 2022 edition will be out soon), the rate of violent crime victimization was 18.5 per 1,000 Black Americans, 16.1 for Whites, 15.9 for Hispanics and 9.9 for Asians, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Understandably, Black Americans are more concerned about crime than others, with 81% telling Pew Research Center pollsters before the 2022 midterm elections that violent crime was a “very important” issue, compared with 65% of Hispanics and 56% of Whites.

These disparities mainly involve communities caught in cycles of violence, not external predators. Of the killers of Black Americans in 2020 whose race was known, 89.4% were Black, according to the FBI. That doesn’t make those deaths any less of a tragedy or public health emergency. Homicide is seventh on the CDC’s list of the 15 leading causes of death among Black Americans, while for other Americans it’s nowhere near the top 15. For Black men ages 15 to 39, the highest-risk group, it’s usually No. 1, although in 2022 the rise in accidental drug overdoses appears to have pushed accidents just past it. For other young men, it’s a distant third behind accidents and suicides.

To be clear, I do not have a solution for this awful problem, or even much of an explanation. But the CDC statistics make clear that sky-high Black homicide rates are not inevitable. They were much lower just a few years ago, for one thing, and they’re far lower in some parts of the US than in others. Here are the overall 2022 homicide rates for the country’s 30 most populous metropolitan areas.

Metropolitan areas are agglomerations of counties by which economic and demographic data are frequently reported, but seldom crime statistics because the patchwork of different law enforcement agencies in each metro area makes it so hard. Even the CDC, which gets its mortality data from state health departments, doesn’t make it easy, which is why I stopped at 30 metro areas.(2)

Sorting the data this way does obscure one key fact about homicide rates: They tend to be much higher in the main city of a metro area than in the surrounding suburbs.

But looking at homicides by metro area allows for more informative comparisons across regions than city crime statistics do, given that cities vary in how much territory they cover and how well they reflect an area’s demographic makeup. Because the CDC suppresses mortality data for privacy reasons whenever there are fewer than 10 deaths to report, large metro areas are good vehicles for looking at racial disparities. Here are the 30 largest metro areas, ranked by the gap between the homicide rates for Black residents and for everybody else.

The biggest gap by far is in metropolitan St. Louis, which also has the highest overall homicide rate. The smallest gaps are in metropolitan San Diego, New York and Boston, which have the lowest homicide rates. Homicide rates are higher for everybody in metro St. Louis than in metro New York, but for Black residents they’re six times higher while for everyone else they’re just less than twice as high.

There do seem to be some regional patterns to this mayhem. The metro areas with the biggest racial gaps are (with the glaring exception of Portland, Oregon) mostly in the Rust Belt, those with the smallest are mostly (with the glaring exceptions of Boston and New York) in the Sun Belt. Look at a map of Black homicide rates by state, and the highest are clustered along the Mississippi River and its major tributaries. Southern states outside of that zone and Western states occupy roughly the same middle ground, while the Northeast and a few middle-of-the-country states with small Black populations are the safest for their Black inhabitants.(3)

Metropolitan areas in the Rust Belt and parts of the South stand out for the isolation of their Black residents, according to a 2021 study of Census data from Brown University’s Diversity and Disparities Project, with the average Black person living in a neighborhood that is 60% or more Black in the Detroit; Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis; Chicago; Cleveland and Milwaukee metro areas in 2020 (in metro St. Louis the percentage was 57.6%). Then again, metro New York and Boston score near the top on another of the project’s measures of residential segregation, which tracks the percentage of a minority group’s members who live in neighborhoods where they are over-concentrated compared with White residents, so segregation clearly doesn’t explain everything.

Looking at changes over time in homicide rates may explain more. Here’s the long view for Black residents of the three biggest metro areas. Again, racial definitions have changed recently. This time I’ve used the new, narrower definition of Black or African American for 2018 onward, and given estimates in a footnote of how much it biases the rates upward compared with the old definition.

All three metro areas had very high Black homicide rates in the 1970s and 1980s, and all three experienced big declines in the 1990s and 2000s. But metro Chicago’s stayed relatively high in the early 2010s then began a rebound in mid-decade that as of 2021 had brought the homicide rate for its Black residents to a record high, even factoring in the boost to the rate from the definitional change.

What happened in Chicago? One answer may lie in the growing body of research documenting what some have called the “Ferguson effect,” in which incidents of police violence that go viral and beget widespread protests are followed by local increases in violent crime, most likely because police pull back on enforcement. Ferguson is the St. Louis suburb where a 2014 killing by police that local prosecutors and the US Justice Department later deemed to have been in self-defense led to widespread protests that were followed by big increases in St. Louis-area homicide rates. Baltimore had a similar viral death in police custody and homicide-rate increase in 2015. In Chicago, it was the October 2014 shooting death of a teenager, and more specifically the release a year later of a video that contradicted police accounts of the incident, leading eventually to the conviction of a police officer for second-degree murder.

It’s not that police killings themselves are a leading cause of death among Black Americans. The Mapping Police Violence database lists 285 killings of Black victims by police in 2022, and the CDC reports 209 Black victims of “legal intervention,” compared with 13,435 Black homicide victims. And while Black Americans are killed by police at a higher rate relative to population than White Americans, this disparity — 2.9 to 1 since 2013, according to Mapping Police Violence — is much less than the 7.5-to-1 ratio for homicides overall in 2022. It’s the loss of trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve that seems to be disproportionately deadly for Black residents of those communities.

The May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer was the most viral such incident yet, leading to protests nationwide and even abroad, as well as an abortive local attempt to disband and replace the police department. The Minneapolis area subsequently experienced large increases in homicides and especially homicides of Black residents. But nine other large metro areas experienced even bigger increases in the Black homicide rate from 2019 to 2022.

A lot of other things happened between 2019 and 2022 besides the Floyd protests, of course, and I certainly wouldn’t ascribe all or most of the pandemic homicide-rate increase to the Ferguson effect. It is interesting, though, that the St. Louis area experienced one of the smallest percentage increases in the Black homicide rate during this period, and it decreased in metro Baltimore.

Also interesting is that the metro areas experiencing the biggest percentage increases in Black residents’ homicide rates were all in the West (if your definition of West is expansive enough to include San Antonio). If this were confined to affluent areas such as Portland, Seattle, San Diego and San Francisco, I could probably spin a plausible-sounding story about it being linked to especially stringent pandemic policies and high work-from-home rates, but that doesn’t fit Phoenix, San Antonio or Las Vegas, so I think I should just admit that I’m stumped.

The standout in a bad way has been the Portland area, which had some of the longest-running and most contentious protests over policing, along with many other sources of dysfunction. The area’s homicide rate for Black residents has more than tripled since 2019 and is now second highest among the 30 biggest metro areas after St. Louis. Again, I don’t have any real solutions to offer here, but whatever the Portland area has been doing since 2019 isn’t working.

(1) The CDC data for 2022 are provisional, with a few revisions still being made in the causes assigned to deaths (was it a homicide or an accident, for example), but I’ve been watching for weeks now, and the changes have been minimal. The CDC is still using 2021 population numbers to calculate 2022 mortality rates, and when it updates those, the homicide rates will change again, but again only slightly. The metropolitan-area numbers also don’t reflect a recent update by the White House Office of Management and Budget to its list of metro areas and the counties that belong to them, which when incorporated will bring yet more small mortality-rate changes. To get these statistics from the CDC mortality databases, I clicked on “Injury Intent and Mechanism” and then on “Homicide”; in some past columns I instead chose “ICD-10 Codes” and then “Assault,” which delivered slightly different numbers.

(2) It’s easy to download mortality statistics by metro area for the years 1999 to 2016, but the databases covering earlier and later years do not offer this option, and one instead has to select all the counties in a metro area to get area-wide statistics, which takes a while.

(3) The map covers the years 2018-2022 to maximize the number of states for which CDC Wonder will cough up data, although as you can see it wouldn’t divulge any numbers for Idaho, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming (meaning there were fewer than 10 homicides of Black residents in each state over that period) and given the small numbers involved, I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in the rates for the Dakotas, Hawaii, Maine and Montana.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/14/where-it-s-most-dangerous-to-be-black-in-america/cdea7922-52f0-11ee-accf-88c266213aac_story.html)