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starry-skies-116 · 1 year ago

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AU Facts Update- Jackson Darby:

For context, Jackson is 16 by the time this specific AU’s first episode (2023) takes place. June is 41, having married at 25 and having Jackson at 26, and having lost her husband Isaiah to illness at 36. Miko’s 16, Raf is 12, Fowler is 39.

He’s a LOT like Luz Noceda. Huge nerd, queer, neurodivergent, BIPOC. Only difference is that he’s Black and Second-Gen Immigrant Pakistani American and Luz is Afro-Latina (Dominican American on Mom’s side and Puerto Rican on Dad’s side, they were most likely from Queens in my AU)

They both have all the exaggerated swagger of a black teen tho 👍

Has a round face, freckles from the sun more visible in summer, dimples, and prominent fang teeth (gremlin face >:D)

They moved from Brooklyn, New York to Jasper, Nevada in order to have a better hospital to treat his father. But they couldn’t save him. Jackson was six at the time his father had to go to urgent care, and seven at the time his father was confined to a wheelchair, and eight when they moved from Brooklyn to Jasper. When Jackson turned ten, his father had succumbed to his illness and died.

Things didn’t get better after his father died. Jackson threw himself into his passions and his everyday affairs just to make his mom not worry about him. In his eyes, she already had enough on her plate, trying to support the family after his dear Baba had died. To add fuel to the fire, Jackson was bullied by his peers for who he was as well, and the teachers, overly critical and unaccommodating of him, refused to help.

At the beginning of the first season (chronologically nearing summer break), June has gained back a high-end job that overworks her. Once she learns about the Autobots and her son’s involvement with them, the war and the AllSpark, she quits and does everything she can to protect and aid them.

I think I’ve already entailed his identities: Bisexual, Intersex (Klinefelter’s- traits included being curvier than the average man + broader shoulders) and Genderqueer (he/him primarily but also goes by they/them)

He has ADHD and anemia, and later on in the series he develops PTSD, depression and insomnia.

He’s an amputee- has a lower leg prosthetic from above the knee. They are replacements for the good chunk of the leg that he lost in a saw accident. There is also a burn scar on his bicep.

Jackson LOVES research and inventions. Since he was a child, he was driven by a burning curiosity that has always had him wanting to learn more about the wider universe.

Him being a sci-fi nerd has only positively reinforced his love for all kinds of science and research, evolving from surface level knowledge to deeper understandings that only ever continue to evolve.

Instead of specializing in one specific field, he loves to study all of them- from chemicals to animals to archaeology on artifacts and dug up animal remains so that he can carbon date them (even if he does have a small affinity for working with mechanical things and computers)

Ever since he was a child, he’s always had video diaries recorded of his life experiences and experiments. Later on, when the Autobots watch them, they are provided glimpses into Jackson’s life and the kind of person that he was and became over time.

In this Transformers Prime alternate universe, there’s a franchise called Celestial Odyssey that started out as a comic series first, then became an entire franchise with a whole series alongside an “upcoming” reboot, several movie spin-offs and video games plus spinoff comics. Jackson LOVES this series to bits, and his father introduced it to both him and his mother.

His leather jacket has the Celestial Odyssey logo that he painted himself on the back: he also has a lot of merchandise in his room from the franchise, like posters, action figures, even painted sections of certain walls reminiscent of that ‘space’ aesthetic, et cetera. Hell, he even has a copy of the necklace of one of the characters from the show.

Seriously- whenever someone even mentions that show, he basically becomes the definition of an unskippable cutscene.

Jackson loves colors and colorful little patches and decorations on his outfits! Well, ones without eye-strain, to be exact.

He begs his mother to go to cosplay conventions, she agrees whenever they have the time and the conditions are absolutely perfect and basically primed to make it an incredible fan experience. It’s to honor their father, who was just as much of an absolute nerd as them.

Fowler knew Jackson’s father from the army, but he didn't find out until later. It takes a few episodes for them to warm up to each other enough, and their relationship only continues to develop. At its blossoming point, they fight like siblings, but still fiercely love and care for one another.

#transformers #transformers au #transformers reboot au #tfp #tfp au #jackson darby #transformers prime #jack darby #headcanon #au update #william fowler

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heavenboy09 · 1 year ago

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Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 To You The Most Breathtaking & Superb Afro-American/ Caribbean Actress In The Acting World Today 🌎 Of The 21st Century

Hailing All The Way From Passaic, New Jersey 🇯🇪

Her Roots are from The Dominican 🇩🇴 Republic & Puerto 🇵🇷 Rican Ancestry

She was born on June 19, 1978, in Passaic, New Jersey Her parents were Aridio Saldaña, who was Dominican, and Asalia Nazario, a Dominican with Puerto Rican ancestry. Nazario was living as a child with her mother in the Dominican Republic, but they migrated to New York to escape political unrest.

A trained dancer, She began her acting career in two 1999 episodes of Law & Order. Her first film role was in Center Stage (2000) in which she played a ballet dancer. She received early recognition for her work opposite Britney Spears in the road film Crossroads (2002). Beginning in 2009, She achieved a career breakthrough with her roles as Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek film series and Neytiri in James Cameron's Avatar film series. She portrayed Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). In addition to franchise work, She has starred in the science fiction film The Adam Project and the romantic drama miniseries From Scratch, both for Netflix in 2022.

She is an American actress. Known primarily for her work in science fiction film franchises, she has appeared in the three highest-grossing films of all time (Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water and Avengers: Endgame), a feat not achieved by any other performer. Films she has appeared in have grossed more than $14 billion worldwide and, as of 2023, she is the second-highest-grossing film actress, and the fourth actor overall. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.

Please Wish This Magnificent Brown Skin Goddess Of Afro-Latin / Caribbean Descent Actress Of Immeasurable Talent In Major Big Blockbuster Franchises, A Very Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊

You Know Her

You Have Seen Her

& You Can't Not Help But To Love Her ❤

The 1 & The Only

MS. ZOE YADIRA SALDAÑA - PEREGO AKA ZOE SALDAÑA 🇩🇴🇵🇷🤎

HAPPY 45TH BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 TO YOU MS. SALDANA 🤎💙💚#ZoeSaldana #Uhura #Neytiri #Gamora

#Zoe Saldana #Uhura #Neytiri #Gamora #Spotify

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lboogie1906 · 10 months ago

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Julia de Burgos (February 17, 1914 - July 6, 1953) was a celebrated literary icon of the Americas whose themes of Blackness, feminism, love, migration, nationalism, and nature helped birth the 1960s Nuyorican movement. She was born in Santa Cruz, Puerto Rico to parents Paula García Burgos, a domestic, produce seller, and homemaker, and Francisco Burgos Hans, a national guardsman and farmer. The Río Grande de Loíza served as both the childhood setting and the title of her greatest ode.

At the University of Puerto Rico, her literary talents and independentist ideology flowered while earning a teaching certificate. She taught in Cedro Arriba, Naranjito, and became general secretary of Frente Unido Femenino where she delivered speeches, wrote letters, and advocated for the release of imprisoned Afro-Puerto Rican Nationalist Party president Pedro Albizu Campos.

She expressed solidarity with Harlem’s African Americans while a journalist for the Spanish-language socialist weekly Pueblos Hispanos and participated in cultural, literary, and political events that affirmed her staunch support for social justice in Puerto Rico, Cuba, DC, and New York City.

She had a romantic relationship with Dominican physician Juan Isidoro Jiménez Grullón but married journalist Rubén Rodriguez Beauchamp and musician Armando Marín, both Puerto Ricans (1934-1946). She began adding “de” before Burgos in 1937 as a defiant feminist act to reclaim herself.

She published Poemas exactos a mí misma, Poema en veinte surcos, Canción de la verdad sencilla, and El mar y tú, the latter posthumously by sister María Consuelo Burgos García. Writer Jack Agüeros translated her 203 poems into English in Song of the Simple Truth.

She won Institutos de Literatura and Cultura Puertorriqueña poetry prizes. After her death, she garnered a UPR honorary doctorate, and a 44¢ US stamp, and streets, schools, parks, and cultural centers adopted her name. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

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simblrlifeofchele · 5 years ago

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Okay, so this is Cynn Ashley Douglass the mother of Caden Green. But anyways I just wanted to show my appreciation for these lashes by @leahlillith I love every single swatch (literally) these are by far my favorite out of all the swatches.

#ts4 #sims4 #simsofcolor #my sim #my baby #leahlillith #i know im late with showing my sim wearing these lashes but whatever #the sims 4 #click for better quality #she is both Afro Dominican and Puerto Rican #blacksims #my sims #urbansims #blacksimblr #Cynn #Cynn Ashley Douglass

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phoenixlionme · 3 years ago

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DC and Marvel Official Latino Ethnicities

Something I noticed in the Hispanic superheroes in both DC and Marvel comics is that many of there ethnicity (?; I hope I’m using the right term, if I’m not please tell me, but BE respectful). Like, I notice there were a lot of Mexican superheroes (those born in Mexico or America) but there weren’t a lot of Hispanic heroes from other regions of the Latin countries. I can only count on one hand on those who weren’t Mexican (i.e., Colombian, Venezuelan, etc). And I'm going to say that this is NOT a dig on the Mexican heroes, it is just something I noticed. And I’m not Latino but I do care diversity and inclusion. I decided to my own idea of what the nationality each of these heroes would be. However, these will ONLY be the superheroes whose ethnicity has NOT been known/confirmed in canon (i.e., not going to count DC’s Jaime Reyes because he is widely known to be Chicano or Mexican American). To be fair, I will be doing it at random and checking the origins of their names to see if they have a specific origin. To restate, this is NOT canon, just my personal take on them. If a hero I listed already had a confirmed ethnicity, please let me know but BE respectful, I do NOT tolerate any form of undeserved hostility.

NOTE: I will bold and italicize the ethnicity that comes from my own idea. I randomized it, to make it more fair. I also made sure to check their first and last names in case they have a specific name origin

DC:

1. Miguel Devante aka Vulcan - biracial; half white and half Costa Rican

2 . Lorena Marquez aka Aquagirl - Salvadoran American

3. Isabella Ortiz aka Robina - Puerto Rican American

4. Rosabelle Mendez aka Pantha - Brazilian

5. Jose Delgado aka Gangbuster - Haitian American

6. Alejandro ‘Alex’ Sanchez aka Firebrand III - Salvadoran American

7. Kendra Munoz-Saunders aka Hawkgirl - Bolivian American

8. Derek James aka Sideways - Venezuelan American

9. Maria aka Aquamaria - last name unknown; from Milestone Comics; Paraguayan

10. Marta aka Brickhouse - last name unknown; from Milestone Comics; Guatemalan

11. Dusk - real name unknown; half Greek and half Ecuadoran; latter nationality unknown; from Milestone Comics

12. Manuel Dexterity - Colombian; from Milestone Comics

13. Manuella Dexterity - Colombian; from Milestone Comics

14. Juan Templo aka Templo - Uruguayan; from Milestone Comics

15. Robert Diaz aka Bloodmoon - Nicaraguan; from Wildstorm Comics

16. Joseph H. Mendoza aka Dozer - Argentinian; from Wildstorm Comics

17. Maya Ducard aka Nobody II - Afro-Haitian

18. Julia Pennyworth - Right now, all I can confirm is that she’s biracial but what her mother’s ethnicity is up in the air. Personally, I say she’s Afro Latina. In this case, Afro-Cubana

MARVEL:

1. Miguel Santos aka Living Lightning - Salvadoran American

2. Roberta Mendez aka Captain America 2099 - Bolivian American

3. Alejandra Jones aka Ghost Rider - Cuban

4. Maya Lopez aka Echo - half Honduran and half Cheyenne; American born

5. Fabio Medina aka Egg (formerly known as Goldballs) - Chilean American

6. Carmen Cruz aka Gimmick - biracial; Afro Nicaraguan

7. Laura Kinney aka Wolverine - biracial; taken from her ORIGINAL design in her FIRST CANON appearance in “X-Men: Evolutions”. I see her as Afro Latina, I was unable to find out what her creators stated on her ethnicity. Half white and half Afro Paraguayan

8. Armando Munoz aka Darwin - biracial; Afro-Nicaraguan

9. Angel Salvadore aka Tempest - biracial; Afro-Dominican

10. Lucia Callasantos aka Thornn - Haitian

11. Maria De Guadalupe “Lupe” Santiago aka Silverclaw - biracial; lives in a fictional Hispanic island or country and is an Indigenous member; Guatemalan

12. Ellie Camacho - biracial; half white and half Haitian

#dc #marvel #lists #latino supers #my posts #latinoexcellence #mine #exude excellence #super idea

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dear-indies · 10 months ago

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Hi dearies! I was wondering if you could help me find an fc (obviously!) The muse in mind had a bit of a wild side in their youth but is trying to turn it around now and be a proper adult. I know that's a little particular, but thankfully nothing else is decided! Any ethnicity, gender or age as long as they can sell the "used to be bad but now good" look. Please and thank you! Hopefully that made sense 🤞

Danny Trejo (1944) Mexican [Indigenous, as well as European, small amount of African].

Lindsay Duncan (1950)

Clarke Peters (1952) African-American.

Benjamin Bratt (1963) Peruvian of Quechua descent, White.

Timothy Olyphant (1968)

Peter Dinklage (1969) - has achondroplasia.

Melissa McCarthy (1970)

Don Lee (1971) Korean.

Carla Gugino (1971)

Michael Irby (1972) African-American / Mexican.

Clemens Schick (1972) - has said that he's not interested in either "gay" or "heterosexual" labels and falls in love with both men and women, but only dates men.

Sara Ramírez (1975) Mexican and some Irish - non-binary, queer and bisexual (they/them) - is pro Palestine!

Pedro Pascal (1975) White Chilean - called for ceasefire and medical aid in Palestine!

Tawny Cypress (1976) African-American, Accawmacke / White - is queer.

Raúl Castillo (1977) Mexican.

Rutina Wesley (1978) African-American - has dated men and women but hasn't labelled her sexuality.

Natasha Lyonne (1979) Ashkenazi Jewish.

Stephanie Beatriz (1981) Colombian [White, one quarter Sephardi Jewish, possibly other] / Bolivian [Unspecified Indigenous, White, possibly other] - is bisexual.

JD Pardo (1980) Argentinean / Salvadorian.

T'Nia Miller (1980) Afro Jamaican - is a lesbian.

Ricky Whittle (1981) Afro Jamaican / White.

Beth Ditto (1981) - is queer - is pro Palestine!

Gabriel Luna (1982) Mexican and Lipan Apache.

Riz Ahmed (1982) Pakistani - is pro Palestine!

Mahesh Jadu (1982) Bihari, Gorakhpuri and Kashmiri Indo-Mauritian.

Billie Piper (1982)

Dichen Lachman (1982) Tibetan / German.

Ed Skrein (1983) Ashkenazi Jewish / possibly English.

Greta Lee (1983) Korean.

Levy Tran (1983) Vietnamese.

Carlos Miranda (1984) Nicaraguan.

Asia Kate Dillon (1984) Ashkenazi Jewish / Unspecified - non-binary and pansexual (they/them) - is pro Palestine!

Max Riemelt (1984)

Jaimie Alexander (1984)

Richard Cabral (1984) Mexican.

Rahul Kohli (1985) Punjabi Indian - uses he/they.

Clayton Cardenas (1985) Mexican, Filipino.

Miguel Gomez (1985) Colombian.

Jai Courtney (1986)

Josh Segarra (1986) Puerto Rican.

Monica Raymund (1986) Dominican Republic / English, Ashkenazi Jewish - is bisexual.

Roberta Colindrez (1986) Mexican - is queer.

Michaela Coel (1987) Ghanaian - is aromantic.

Sarah Snook (1987)

Mae Martin (1987) - is non-binary (they/them).

Lewis Tan (1987) Singaporean Chinese / White.

David Castañeda (1989) Mexican.

Danielle Brooks (1989) - has openly dated men and women but hasn't labelled her sexuality.

Hannah John-Kamen (1989) Nigerian / Norwegian.

Jack O'Connell (1990)

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (1991) African-American, 1/4 Emma Mackey- is trans.

Ramy Youssef (1991) Egyptian - is pro Palestine!

Jeanine Mason (1991) Cuban.

Julio Macias (1990) Mexican.

Eric Graise (1990) African-American - is a double leg amputee and uses prosthetic legs and a wheelchair.

Kiowa Gordon (1990) Hualapai (maternal grandmother), White.

Barry Keoghan (1992)

Bae Suzy (1994) Korean.

Jessie Mei Li (1995) Hongkonger / English - is a gender non-conforming woman who uses she/they.

Bilal Baig (1995) Pakistani - is genderfluid and non-binary (they/them).

Kehlani (1995) African-American, French, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Mexican, Filipino, White, Choctaw - non-binary womxn, lesbian and polyamorous - she/they - is pro Palestine!

Ruth Codd (1996) - is a right leg below the knee amputee and uses a prosthetic leg.

Florence Pugh (1996) - is pro Palestine!

Emma Mackey (1996)

Emilio Sakraya (1996) Moroccan and Serbian.

Please let me know if you'd like something more specific!

#fc help #rph #rpc #long ask cw

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theperfectlong · 2 years ago

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Younghollywood poducer

“If the producers of Supergirl wanted a Latina woman to play Maggie Sawyer, why not cast one? How many people know Meagan Good is part Puerto Rican? Or that Harry Shum Jr. She’s even gone on record stating how Hollywood wants their Latinas to look Italian,” she wrote. “Gina Torres is a proud Afro-Cuban American woman who, as far as I know, never gotten a chance to play a Latina woman on screen. This can, and has, further contributed to the alienation of Afro and Indigenous Latinxs within our community.” “It also, I personally feel, encourages some individuals within the Latinx community to reject their indigenous or black ancestry in favor of whiteness. “By ignoring those parts of our community, media creates a distorted image of our culture, which allows the continued whitewashing of our community, ignorance regarding our identities, and contributes to a lack of empathy of our struggles,” she wrote. It’s important that media reflects the actual reality of the Latinx community, which includes a wide range of races, and even religious identities.” I have to– otherwise I contribute to the continued problems of colorism in both the Latinx community and within a larger worldwide context,” wrote Desiree Rodriguez, Editorial Assistant for Lion Forge sci-fi comic book Catalyst Prime and writer for Women on Comics and The Nerds of Color, in an email interview.”By favoring women who look like me, you erase the multitude of men, women, and non-binary Latinx individuals who don’t look like me. “I understand my privilege as a light-skinned afro-Boricua woman. Even though it’s women of color, it’s much more valuable in media to be light skinned than dark skinned.” I really feel like that’s an issue that translates to the screen as well. I think that’s…something that’s very important,” said Kimberly Hoyos, filmmaker and creator of The Light Leaks, a website designed to support, educate and empower female and gender non-conforming filmmakers. “Even in my Latino community, there’s a weird emphasis on how dark you are or how light you are or where you’re from. “…here’s obvious merit in bringing in new talent because that director could be the next person who discovers the next actor. All of them sounded off on the colorism and anti-blackness that affects Latinx who don’t look like, as Young Hollywood hinted at in his own words to Amara, the stereotypical “Latinx” person. Last year, I interviewed several Latinx content creators for my longform piece on what it’s like being Latinx in Hollywood. If you needed an example of one of the biggest issues facing Afro-Latinx, look no further than Young Hollywood’s interaction with Amara. Young Hollywood needs to check himself, because he’s a prime example of anti-blackness in the Latinx community. I’m actually not sure what I would have done, but it would definitely be something people wouldn’t expect from someone as quiet-natured as me.Ĥ. “ NUTELLA QUEEN”? Amara played this exchange much cooler than I think I would have. First, it’s the overt colorism and anti-blackness he embodies with comments about not being glamorous with an afro, mocking the Black Power fist, and calling Amara “Afro-Latina Queen” and “Nutella Queen,” not to mention questioning the validity of the Afro-Latina identity.ģ. How disrespectful and racist can he be? It’s as if he went out of his way to be disrespectful. Basically, what I’m saying is that Young Hollywood doesn’t seem as popular as he wants everyone to believe.Ģ. I feel like if Young Hollywood were really important in the music industry, I’d certainly know more about him than his tragic presentation of himself on Love and Hip Hop Miami. WHO is Young Hollywood? Not to play that “I don’t know her” game, but I don’t know who this is, and I know a lot about pop culture. It's sad that people actually think like this. In this clip, Dominican singer Amara La Negra face intense colorism and racism from producer Young Hollywood. I’m not a watcher of any of the Love and Hip Hop franchise, but I had to take a moment out of my day to write about the controversy that flared up during the first episode of Love and Hip Hop Miami.

#Younghollywood poducer

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la-liga-zine · 7 years ago

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Amara, Cardi and Black Dominicanidad in the United States

In January of 2018, both Amara la Negra and Cardi B.’s names have been buzzing on social media for different reasons. The experiences of these two women, who identify racially as Black and ethnically as Dominican, serve to illustrate the subtle, nuanced complexities of race in the 21st century and in a transnational context.

Amara was featured in a recent clip from Love and Hip Hop Miami where she is seen debating a music producer about her experience and identity as a person who’s of the African diaspora.[1] The internet supported Amara for claiming her blackness proudly in front of an overtly sexist white Latino man. Overnight, social media was ablaze with Amara fever, and it became clear that people had a lot to say about her appearance. She was accused of wearing blackface, accusations that centered around her hair and her skin tone.

Cardi B. released a 90s hip hop inspired video with Bruno Mars, an artist at the center of concerns about the appropriation of African American culture. In a recent article on the issue, a writer cited her as garnering the kind of success that lighter skinned Black women are afforded to the detriment of darker skinned black women.

On the one hand, Amara has been questioned for appearing “too dark” and wearing “fake” hair. On the other, Cardi B. has been challenged for being too light vis-à-vis her African American peers in the music industry.

Accusations of this sort against Amara have floated around as rumors for years. And It is important to question the structure of privilege that will place both Cardi B. and Bruno Mars into positions of prominence, garnering success in relation to their darker skinned African American and Afro-Latinx peers. However, while the answer to addressing colorism is clear to me (consistently dedicate resources to the dark skinned, working class women who are systematically denied access), the path that I want to travel veers off these two lines and addresses what we understand “blackness” to be. Ultimately, we cannot stray far off the mark of colorism’s hierarchies because it continues to structure the ways that resources are allocated and lives organized. However, I’m allowing myself space to make other points in order to better understand Cardi B. and Amara’s positionalities as Dominican women living in the transnational context of the D.R.-U.S. relationship.

The thoughts and the questions that rise up in me when considering the recent public conversation about these artists are: “What are the aspects that construct the contemporary experience of blackness in the Americas?” and “What would it mean to center Amara and Cardi’s Dominicanidad in conversations about their racial authenticity in relationship to their African American peers?”

When talking and thinking about race, one of the most elusive concepts, multiple realities must be balanced. Skin color, hair texture and other physical features mark difference that gets framed as “racial” Given that anti-blackness and anti-indigeneity pervade the modern world, across nations and spaces, these factors will significantly (and differently) impact life outcomes of Black and Indigenous peoples. Within Black diaspora communities, class status, practices (everything from aesthetic practices like art, music and dance to healing practices) and the network of relationships and shared values that Black people develop in response to historical circumstances and imposed structures (like structural racism) and as a result of contact with each other work alongside these markers of difference to create the social contexts where “race” is understood and experienced. Prominent among the structures that craft Black experiences are racism and colorism, which work alongside classism, misogyny and other structures of privilege to pattern experience.

For Dominicans like Cardi B. and Amara who live between the racial system of Latin America and the U.S., status, practices and relationships have become significant, alongside physical features, in defining a racial identity. I say practices, thinking of the ways that styles of clothing, ways of speaking and embodying “Blackness” have become key markers of how we understand “Blackness.” Contact refers to the ways that extended contact between, for example, African American and Dominican people in Cardi B’s New York City, has precipitated new identities for young Dominicans like her that have yet to be unpacked (but that I’ll explore here). Relationship is another significant aspect that aligns the two factors mentioned: How we understand our own racial identity is never an individual experience. Instead, we form politicized visions of our racial identity when we learn from and with others who also endure racism’s effects. Or who perpetuate them. Contract, Relationships and Practices lean upon each other: The practices that make up racial identity are deeply tied to the relationships we have to the people in our circles. At the same time, racism, shapes whom we can actually be in close relationship with due to unaddressed housing segregation and classism in the U.S.

Put simply, Cardi B.’s blackness is a unique combination of two things: First, her experience as a low-income, lighter skinned Dominican woman in countries highly invested in colorism. Second, her experience in proximity to African Americans, experiences which I suggest have crafted a unique way of being afro-descendant and Dominican that are different from being African American and different from being Black Dominican in the D.R. Yet the two are deeply intertwined.

The first factor means that contending with her light skinned privilege is fully part of her experience as a black person, as it should be for all people of African descent in the Americas who have mixed heritages. In other words, contending with her whiteness vis-à-vis her blackness are also part of the work of Cardi B’s (and by extension all Dominican Americans) afro-descendant should be experiencing. Such contention comes with an acknowledgement of the whitening privilege of our practices: Our abilities to speak English, our U.S. passport and the fact that Dominicanyorks can pay in dollars when we travel to the D.R. It also means not erasing indigeneity in the desire to claim blackness, while being wary of the way the Dominican state has systematically used indigeneity to erase blackness. This, in sum, is a fine balancing act.

The second points to the fact that an entire generation of Dominican-Americans like Belcalys has grown up in the urban communities of New York. Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. While tensions remained when African American, Puerto Rican and Dominicans kids mingled, Dominican youth largely adapted to the environment in which they were being raised, adopting hip hop culture and mixing and mingling it with their own regueatton, dembow and more recently “Spanish Trap.” Dominicanyork culture flourished from this proximity to African American peers, and while it’s largely been male-dominated and represented, Cardi B. is the closest thing to its female example for a mass popular audience. To be Dominicanyork means to hold the privileges of gringolandia (English, passport, dollars) yet to also be considered criminal and less legitimate by being associated to African- Americans. This is all happening while more traditional Dominicans continue to systematically deny Afro-Dominicans and Dominican Haitians the right to life, to their cultural practices and heritages.

Afro-Dominican. Dominicanyork. African-American. Here are multiple ways to be an afro-descendant person in the worlds that Cardi B and Amara move through. And yet the conversation is not focused on these blended identities, how complex and interesting they are. Instead, the conversation about Cardi B revolved around “beef” between her and her African American peers.

By the contemporary conversations, one might think that the relationships between Dominicans and African Americans have always been problematic. Yet the connections are much deeper than most people can understand. As the historian Anne Eller found, in the early 19 th century, as Haiti and the D.R. were the only free black and mulatto Republics in the Western Hemisphere, African Americans regularly fled to the Dominican Republic to establish communities away from U.S. racism. When the U.S. Marines invaded the Dominican Republic, they installed a system of brutal Jim Crow law, much like African Americans experienced in the United States. If the U.S. African American community was a nation, its closest neighbors would be the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

While the freedom dreams from the 19 th century Caribbean and the forms of resistance to Jim Crow Dominicans enacted have largely been extinguished by a brutal regime of state-sponsored white supremacy and anti-blackness in the 20 th century, today’s debates about Cardi B and Amara’s blackness in relation to their Dominicanidad and to their standing vis-a- vis African Americans would lead us to believe that the places where these two artists come from, and the places where they have been able to establish success, are less related than they actually are. The Black people of the U.S. and those of the D.R. have historically been in relationship in ways that we are just now beginning to understand, with the discovery that the first free black person from the island of Hispaniola, Jan Rodriguez, arrived in New York City in the 1600s and a black Dominican man flew as a Tuskegee Airman.

Women in the D.R. are actively imagining and practicing a world where their blackness is not questioned as an entry point into their Dominicanidad by wearing their hair natural. In the U.S., they’re forging selves between their Dominicanness, their relative blackness, indigeneity and whiteness, and their status living in an anti-black, anti- immigrant country. Amara lives within this transnational context, a context hardly acknowledged as she emerged in English-language media over the past few weeks. When Amara first burst onto the scene with her single “Ay” in 2012, Amara’s blackness was simply not legible as signs of gendered empowerment. Some have speculated that if Amara had not rocked her Afro-Latina heritage, which in her case really is her Dominicanidad, the conversations about her body would not have been nearly as pronounced.

"Women in the D.R. are actively imagining and practicing a world where their blackness is not questioned as an entry point into their Dominicanidad."

The debates about Amara’s body, the authenticity of her hair and skin tone are futile and disrespectful. They obscure the symbols of a blackness in her aesthetic that are also incredibly, inherently Dominican and Caribbean. Watching Amara’s body of work without centering on her physical body exclusively brings into view a complex performance. Amara uses the stereotypes associated with Black women in the Americas: Mammie/domestic help and oversexualized Jezebel. She does this frequently and has established herself as an artist through this practice. With, through and despite this, the elements of her videos make quintessential reference to Dominican blackness: Looking closely, her first single contains a gaga band and carnival diablos cojuelos, both symbols of (safe) carnivalesque blackness in the Spanish Caribbean. She regularly mocks Dominican white womanhood, claiming “Te afecto bonita” in the equivalent of a Dominican valley girl accent in “Asi” and sleeping with the male partner of a lighter skinned Dominican woman in “Se Que Soy.” How Amara and her team play with the signs of Dominican and Caribbean blackness in their videos is much more interesting than wondering whether her hair is real or not. How these aspects of her aesthetic will remain visible in her move towards mainstream Latinx commercial success in the U.S. will be interesting to move the conversation on Dominicanidad and blackness to a new space.

Amara and Cardi B. remain interesting to me as a Afro-descendant Dominican immigrant woman because I understand that both are highly dangerous for the investment in whiteness and class-status that has shaped my country of origin. Despite all the ways that celebrities, and pop culture in general, can be “problematic,” Cardi B.’s rise to fame, her chapiadora aesthetics and her hood feminism is a complete threat to the status quo in the D.R. that has consistently pushed people like her and her family to the margins. Watching Amara be taken up my mainstream U.S. society has similarly brought feelings of joy and curiosity in me, as I see a new model for representing Blackness and Dominicanidad becoming more mainstream, one that is not as depoliticized as someone like Zoe Saldaña, who held that space in popular culture until recently.

My excitement, as with anything, is always marked by my awareness that we should not hinge our hopes for black liberation on Cardi B. or Amara (nor on Beyoncé, Jay Z or Oprah, or…). In contemporary circles of Afro-Latinidad, social justice and “wokeness,” there's a lot of pressure to perform the mirage of a perfect “woke” figure. The claims to this reality are made complex by the fact that our pop culture figures often serve as scapegoats for a broader audience that, due to the way that media consumption has replaced deepened interactions, uses these figures and their struggles to keep us from doing our own complex work and being our own inspiring figures challenging anti- blackness in all its forms.

In a year that has brought us deeply regressive policies and a near return to pre-Civil Rights United States, we are looking for sheroes like Cardi B and Amara to cheer on and ride hard for. The general comments about both “cultural appropriation” and “Blackface” that inspired me to write this article are indicative of a desire for authenticity that betrays a greater anxiety and need to protect a blackness that is deeply under siege. Policing the bounds of this blackness in U.S. pop culture means resorting to forms of gatekeeping that keep us from understanding the systemic forms of resource inequality that keep the people who create the cultural material in question—working class people of African descent who claim connections to the U.S. mainland or the Latin American region—from living dignified lives. Questioning appropriation by centering on the assumed perpetrators while refraining ourselves from asking “Whose culture counts as Black culture? Why is black culture being treated as a limited resource? Who instituted such thinking in the first place?” fails to move the conversation in the direction of equity.

[1] I refrain from using the terms Afro-Latinx because it is a broad categorical term that does not allow us to get into the specificity of the experiences of individuals, specificities which are often connected to specific local histories and national trajectories. The term Afro-Latinx, moreover, deserves further unpacking for its origins. For now, it serves to say that both Amara and Cardi B. are women who live with the effects of the forms of systemic racism and lack of imagination that have plagued the world for centuries, though they live with these effects very differently due to the intersections of their class, location, nationality privileges, etc.

#Cardi B #Amara La Negra #Afro Latinx #Afro Latinidad

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fcresourcing · 7 years ago

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i have two questions): any fc idea for rapunzel (tangled), and shego (kim possible)?? And i need a girl (19-25) latina, pleasee.

Rapunzel was 18 in the movie, but in the show, it appears that she’s late teens to early 20s. Rapunzel can be of any ethnicity, but she has distinct blonde hair for the majority of the movie so it was difficult to find any that could fit both! For Shego, her age is unknown, but is suspected 20s/30s and can be of any ethnicity. Then there’s the Latina woman, 19-25, which you gave no specific ethnicity / appearance for, which is all under the cut!

If you are to request in the future, please send multiple requests in separate asks! Thank you!

Rapunzel - Actresses with both blonde and brown haired resources!!!

Rebecca Rittenhouse (blonde) (brown)- 28 - Unspecific WhiteMelissa Benoist (blonde) (brown) - 28 - German, English, Scottish, FrenchZoe Kravitz (blonde) (brown) - 28 - Ashkenazi Jewish, African-American, Afro-Bahamian

Shego

Nana Komatsu - 21 - JapaneseBae Suzy - 22 - South KoreanNadine Lustre - 23 - FilipinoKeke Palmer - 24 - African-AmericanJessica Henwick - 25 - Chinese, EnglishLee Sunmi - 25 - South KoreanMaisie Richardson-Sellers - 25 - Unspecific BlackSara Sampaio - 26 - PortugueseTanaya Beatty - 26 - Da’Naxda’xw Native, Himalyan NativeChloe Bridges - 27 - Honduran, EnglishJessica De Gouw - 29 - DutchKsenia Solo - 29 - Russian, German

Latina Girl

Isabella Gomez - 19 - ColombianBecky G - 20 - MexicanOriana Sabatini - 21 - Argentinian Victoria Moroles - 21 - Mexican Cierra Ramirez - 22 - Mexican, Colombian Camila Mendes - 23 - BrazilianSofia Carson - 24 - ColombianAdria Arjona - 25 - Puerto Rican, Guatemalan Val Mercado - 25 - Dominican

#animated fc #fc help #**Sveja #Anonymous

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babygirlkidd0 · 7 years ago

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Thank God I do not believe the Tumblr discourse that all Afro-latinxs are antiblack. The thing is, antiblackness is found everywhere but dismissing all afro-latinxs, putting them in the same basket because you met Dominicans or Puerto Ricans that are antiblack is really disgusting and toxic. I have seen afro-latinxs bloggers here having to prove to ugly anons that they are afro descents through posting pictures of themselves and their family members. This is getting crazy at this point. Both of my parents are Africans but they belong to different cultures, I was born and raised in Western Europe so maybe that makes me understand better that you cannot dismiss another culture and mindset because it does not fit your own. If an Afro-latinx prefers saying her/his nationality... so be it! Same for African people who prefers saying their ethnic group than saying that they are Black. It is for a REASON ! As long as they are not disrespectful with other people, let them be! I had the chance to live in Brazil for half a year and ones of the most amazing people I met where Afro Brazilians. Either they were from the lower class, the middle class or upper middle class, they were genuinely proud of their culture (their culture shaped Brazil) but also they wanted to learn about the culture(s) I come from. In Salvador de Bahia me and I mom were greated so nicely... to this day she keeps on wanting to go back there for vacation. During that time I was studying in Rio de Janeiro and I met an old afro-brazilian lady who used to teach biology (she is upper middle class for Brazilian standards) and she also is a candomblé worshipper. We kept talking about our cultures, racism, politics, feminism, religion etc. By the way she described herself through different adjectives, sometimes it was "Black", or "Afro Brazilian" or the origins of her ancestors (Kingdom of Dahomey on her mother side, Kongo Kingdom on her father side as her father was from Minas Gerais). I met her two years ago and to this very day we keep talking on whatsapp and we are still sharing about our families and afro diasporic cultures.

#like... stop #text #tumblr discourse

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thelovelylights · 8 years ago

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would you mind please explaining to me what a white latinx is? i've been trying to fully educate myself on the difference between white latinx, white passing latinx, and light skin latinx. can you be a white latinx if you're of Caribbean decent (i.e. Dominican, Puerto Rican, etc.)?

Hola!So a white Latinx is exactly what it means. This is a person whose both parent’s are white. And either they were born or raised in a Latinx country or community.Example: Hanna was born in Germany to, two white German parent’s. She moved to Argentina at age three. Hanna identifies as Latina.The confusion greatly lies because main stream media and outlets treat Latinx as a race when it is not.Also to further help you out white passing and light skin are used alternatively in many cases. For example though I am mulatta I am a light skinned Latina. Now for your last question yes you can be a white Latinx if you’re Caribeño. The grand majority of Caribeño’s aren’t but they still exist because once again Latinx is not a race. Let’s look at some preciosa Cubanas:

Lauren Jauregui (White Latina)

Herizen Guardiola (Afro Latina)

Danay Garcia (Asian Latina)

Eva Mendes (Biracial *mulatta* Latina)

See how they all look different but they are all still Latina.

#jen answers #latinx #I used latina because all of the following people identify as cis #i use latinx when speaking about the community in general in case you were wondering why i switch on and off

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viannisthingsblog · 7 years ago

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What are you?

On Wednesday evening. I was covering a story for my college regarding a Latin Carnival which is part of the weeklong celebration of International week. At the event, there were latin foods, games and music.

Towards the end of the event, there was latin music playing and one of the girls from a dance team that we both are on told me “Come dance girl.” So I went and started dancing the popular song.

In the middle of dancing, she's like “Girl?” and I responded “What happened?”

She then preceded to ask me what I was and she corrected herself and rephrased her question asking about my ethnicity.

I said I am Dominican. The girl said are you only Dominican or are you liked mixed with something else like black. So I said no my whole family is Dominican I just am darker skinned because all Dominicans do not look the same. She said oh I thought you were black and then quickly apologized.

I was taken a back a bit by why I had to be mixed in order to be a certain skin color. It baffles me sometimes that society assigns a certain look to what a latino is supposed to look like when in fact there are so many Latin American countries with different cultures. People tend to think if you are Latino then you are either Puerto Rican and Mexican when you can be Cuban, Colombian, Honduran, Chilean,etc.

I identify as Afro-latina because I recognize my African roots and I am learning more about myself, which is interesting in a society that tries to constantly define and tell you who you are.

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dear-indies · 3 years ago

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Hi! No rush, but I would love recs for a female fc who has physical differences, disability and otherwise. no race or age requirements or anything. thanks!

Hey anon, I have a masterlist of disabled faceclaims HERE but I've listed women who have resources at the time of posting for easier access!

Angela Rockwood (1975) German and Thai - is quadriplegic.

Tiphany Adams (1983) - is paraplegic.

Savannah Welch (1984) - leg amputee.

Tamara Mena (1986) Mexican - is paraplegic.

Jillian Mercado (1987) Afro Dominican - has muscular dystrophy.

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard (1989) - has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome with Marfanoid phenotype causing blindness in one eye and deafness - lesbian.

Lauren Potter (1990) - has Down syndrome.

Cary Velazquez (1990) Puerto Rican - has dwarfism.

Sofiya Cheyenne (1991) Taino, Dominican, Syrian, and Italian - has spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita.

Storme Toolis (1992) - has cerebral palsy.

Chelsie Hill (1992) - is paraplegic.

Madison Ferris (1992) - has muscular dystrophy.

Tiny Texie (1992) - hasn’t chosen to label sexually publicly but is openly dating another woman - has Kenny-Caffey syndrome.

Shalom Blac (1995) Nigerian - has burns.

Rhiannon Clements (1994) - was born with a foreshortened left arm.

Alaqua Cox (1997) Menominee and Mohican - is deaf and a leg amputee.

Kiera Allen (1997) - is paraplegic.

Taylor Reilly (1997) - has hondrodysplasia punctata which causes scoliosis, trouble breathing, and unilateral deafness.

Joci Scott (1998) unspecified but is a woman of colour - is paraplegic.

Aaron Rose Philip (2001) Afro-Antiguan - trans - has cerebral palsy.

Hülya Marquardt (?) Turkish - born with dysmelia and has both legs amputated.

Danielle Perez (?) Afro-Dominican - has both lower legs amputated.

Rebekah Marine (?) - was born with symbrachydactyly and had her arm amputated.

Lauren “Lolo” Spencer (?) African-American - has Lou-Gehrig’s disease.

Tobi Green Adenowo (?) Nigerian - bisexual - paraplegic.

Kallyna Sampaio (?) Brazilian - is quadriplegic.

Kristin Victoria (?) - has osteogenesis imperfecta and scoliosis.

Tatiana A. Lee (?) African-American - has spina bifida.

Angel Giuffria (?) - congenital amputee, born without part of her left arm.

Samantha Renke (?) - has osteogenesis imperfecta type 3.

Megan Grannan (?) - has dwarfism.

Dareen Barbar (?) Lebanese and Emirati - leg amputee.

Jessica Long (?) - double leg amputee.

No resources at time of posting but worth a mention!

Thanks to @katherine-mcnamara for some of these suggestions!

Selene Luna (1971) Mexican - has dwarfism.

Cherylee Houston (1974) - has Ehlers–Danlos syndrome.

Sarah Gordy (1976) - has Down syndrome.

Amy Purdy (1979) - double leg amputee.

Cerrie Burnell (1979) - born with her right arm ending slightly below the elbow and has dyslexia.

Katie Piper (1983) - has burns.

Megan Bacon-Evans (1987) - lesbian - has a shortened arm.

Lizzie Velasquez (1989) Mexican - has Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome that, among other symptoms, prevents her from accumulating body fat and gaining weight, is also blind in her right eye and vision-impaired in her left eye.

Jordan Bone (1990) - is quadriplegic.

Marimar Quiroa (1994) Mexican - has cystic hygroma.

Kaitlyn Dobrow (1994) - quadruple amputee.

Grace Mandeville (1994) - arm amputee.

Bebe / Beatrice Vio (1997) - quadruple amputee, both her legs at the knee and both her forearms.

Fatima Timbo (1997) Sierra Leonean - has achondroplasia.

Georgia Rankin (1998) - has skeletal dysplasia.

Milly Shapiro (2002) Jewish - lesbian - she/they - has cleidocranial dysostosis.

Alison Midstokke (?) - has Treacher Collins Syndrome.

Tisha UnArmed (?) - double arm amputee.

Elesha Turner (?) Black British - leg bones are mostly titanium.

#fc help #rph #rpc #disabled fc #disabled fcs

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