#that idiot really want to make it sounds like she's a poor victim of racism lol

[coffeeworldsasaki]

Is there discrimination towards Italians from the south? Sure! It's a thing! My father once caught a neighbor spying on him because she thought he was a criminal! Does that magically make us less white? No fucking way because the second there's an actually not white person the fascists still go and defend the white people from the south! It's more similar to the way white Americans from the south are treated! We're still privileged over brown or black people!

[tessatechaitea]

Teen Titans Spotlight #1: Starfire

Comics in 1986: "Let's begin our new series with Starfire battling Apartheid!" Asshole Fans in 2019: "Comics should go back to the good old days when they weren't political!"

Really, M&M's? Everyone? Haven't you heard about Apartheid?!

So far the craziest thing about this comic book to modern audiences is how boring M&M colors were in 1986. I suspect I don't have the maturity to comment on a story about Apartheid. Oh well! Let's do this! The story is called "Black and White" because, you see, Apartheid was about how whites and blacks experienced two disparate South Africas. It's also a play on how "black and white" is a way to describe issues that have easily recognizable positive and negative sides. It's probably racist that we automatically assume the black side is the negative side. Maybe that also plays into the title! Chess pieces are black and white too so maybe the title alludes to chess. Maybe something about pawns versus the gentry. Marv might even work in some bits about The Beatles seeing as how they're using that zebra crossing on the cover of Abbey Road. Starfire has just returned from Tamaran where she married that dweeby Prince Karras guy. He was Tamaran's version of Terry Long. I'm surprised more panels didn't show Starfire and Donna in the background giggling and holding their index fingers and thumb a teeny, tiny distance apart. Starfire didn't spend eighth grade on Earth so she never learned Earth geography. So instead of flying in from space and looking at Earth and going, "Okay, that's New York right there!", she winds up in South Africa. I bet she came at Earth upside down and got confused. It's easy to get confused in space where up and down don't exist in any objective way. Starfire descends upon a group of black people chanting "Informer" at a woman they eventually soak in gasoline and light on fire. Holy fuck! This comic book just got more real than all 114 issues of New Titans I just recently reread! Except maybe that part where Raven raped Starfire during Starfire's wedding. That was pretty heavy. The white police arrive to commit some justice. Unless I meant "racism" instead of "justice." Sometimes, living in America, it's hard to see the difference.

I bet this guy has a MAGA Twitter account.

How many of your racist family members often bring up black on black crime when discussing gun control or cops shooting unarmed black men? How many of those idiots don't think they're being racist when they bring up that argument and just think they're being logical? It's fucking racism, dudes. Cops killing unarmed black men has nothing to do with black men being killed by criminals who happen to share their same skin color. Nobody ever talks about "white on white" crime. That's just crime perpetuated by criminals against innocent people! But somehow a black person shooting another black person belongs in some kind of special category? Of course a black person is probably going to be the victim of a black criminal because America had this thing called white flight. It caused places to become poor black neighborhoods because white people couldn't handle having even one black neighbor. So people and businesses moved out, local governments ignored infrastructure of those areas (or purposefully simply just built freeways straight through them), and constantly sent the police in to hassle innocent people just trying to live their fucking lives. Systemic racism (and racists!) segregated the races in a fairly efficient manner. So when a black criminal looks for a victim in their neighborhood, of course they're going to almost certainly find a black victim! That's simply crime, not black on black crime. Maybe I would think differently if anybody ever at any time in any of these debates brought up white on white crime. Y'all realize that's the most prevalent crime there is, right? Which means whites are the biggest criminals of all. If you're, you know, going to argue that way, you stupid racist asshole. Plus saying black on black crime is just a way for people to intimate that most crime is caused by black people. "Even though they keep criming us whites, they still have time to crime up their own people!" This comic book taught me that South African police would use purple dye in water cannons to stain people during protests so that they can be identified later as people who participated in the riot that totally didn't erupt later due to the police being overly aggressive and also racist. Wolfman says people "affectionately" called it Purple Rain which led me down a rabbit hole to figure out which came first, the racist ploy to arrest as many people as possible or the Prince album. Apparently the dyed water was named after the Prince album. That's probably why it was an "affectionate" sobriquet.

I'm a little bit worried that Wolfman is about to "both sides" Apartheid.

Starfire winds up with the South African police who tell her all about how terrible South African blacks are and how she's going to get a medal for helping quell the protest. They also call the woman who burned to death a bitch so I'm getting the feeling that they're not really interested in any kind of justice or peace. It's quite possible that — hear me out on this — they just want to oppress the black citizens and make sure they know their place. But I don't want to jump to conclusions! I should wait until I hear their arguments in a frank and logical debate. "Please, white South Africans, explain to me how South Africa needs your violent tactics and racist attitudes to maintain peace and order. Also explain how peace and order aren't different from justice for everybody. I might be convinced to stop calling you racist if you debate well!"

This guy doesn't realize how true it is that he's teaching these black South Africans how to behave.

It would have been easy to read this, at one time, from a privileged position as a citizen of America and think that the white South Africans in this story were caricatures of racist monsters, playing up their terrible qualities to get the reader to sympathize with the plight of the black South Africans. But these caricatures of despicable and horrible systemic racism using tactics to dehumanize a segment of the population are absolute mirrors of Trump and his deplorables. "They're animals." "They're not like us." "They do not think." "They are like children." "They fight amongst themselves." "We are just securing the peace." "This is God's country." "They need to be taught how to behave." "Their flagrant disregard for the law must be stopped." And all of these statements are simply excuses to treat certain people as less than human. "They get what they deserve." I'm so fucking disappointed in so many Americans right now. Starfire is completely confused by everything she's seeing. In her confusion, some journalists get her to sort of say she's for Apartheid. Uh oh! The Teen Titans are going to get worse press than when they destroyed New York City while arguing with their parents about their curfew.

Starfire's response is me on Twitter every fucking day.

The South African leader, Racist McRacisthole, tells Starfire not to worry about the journalists because they're always asking terrible questions and lying about how awful everything is. But Starfire is all, "Just because I have big hair and big tits and my ass is hanging out, don't think I'm a fucking idiot! Not that I'm trying to say people who look like that are idiots! But I know terrible people like you, Mr. Racisthole, think like that! So I just want you to know that I see you! I see what you're doing and how you're trying to snow me with all this fucking dehumanizing garbage! You remind me of the Gordanians!" Then Starfire gets so angry and delivers such a passionate speech that her nose falls off.

"I'b not gobing do libben do yub liebs aby lobber!"

Starfire declares she never cared for politics and tells Governor Racisthole that she's leaving. But instead of going, "Good! Stop interfering with our terrible government!", he says, "I won't let you leave which will probably cause you to stay and help the oppressed!" Starfire hears a prisoner screaming in pain before she leaves and decides to stick around to help him. While doing so, she realizes that maybe she show these government officials real power! No, I don't mean she's going to flash her tits. Jesus. Some of you comic book nerds just don't stop, do you?! Sure, DC panders to your boners by putting Starfire in her underwear. But you do have the choice to stop being such creepy little fucks, you know?

Imagine reading this and instead of thinking, "You tell 'em, Starfire! Way to go!", you think, "Virtue signaler."

Starfire has some more thoughts from 1986 for us here in 2019. She just won't stop!

Virtue signaler!

I swear the rest of this commentary can just be scans of Starfire saying important shit.

I mean, if this 1986 comic book is an example of older comics that Comicsgaters want to go back to, I'm fucking up for that shit.

In the next panel that I'm not going to scan because I'll never finish reading this comic book if I scan every fucking panel, Starfire says, "Unwittingly, my father helped ruin our world by caving in to our enemies rather than fighting for what was right. I won't do that here on Earth. I've got to care." I should probably send that panel to Nancy Pelosi. Starfire frees all of the political prisoners and escorts them back to where they're forced to live outside the city. She tries to figure out what Apartheid means and Father Nelson Mandutu, the rebel leader the police have been searching for, tells her, "Ah, I see — you are trying to make sense of madness." It's as good a reason to dismiss people always pressing you to debate their terrible ideas and worthless topics. How can you win a debate against twisted logic and racist madness? Just ignore them when they call you a coward or an elitist when you refuse to debate. I was always taught that the best way to get shit off of your shoe is to scrape it off, not to get in an argument with it. Starfire follows Mandutu around for the day except for the one moment when he's kidnapped. When she goes to rescue him, she destroys an armory and discovers that Father Mandutu has been killed. BY HER! And there are cameras rolling! Totally not suspicious or anything! I bet we discover she was framed next issue! That's the kind of intelligent speculation you get from a Grandmaster Comic Book Reader like me. I can't be fooled even by the most subtle of plot twists! Teen Titans Spotlight #1: Starfire Rating: A. I should probably apologize to Marv Wolfman for all the insults I've made about his Teen Titans books. This was a well-written infotainment issue putting precisely the right character at the heart of an international travesty. And I thought a story about Apartheid was going to be boring! It's almost as if I forgot that every panel would have tons of side boob! Oh no! I just realized I'm one of those creepy little fucks!

[a-magpie-witchling]

What's the deal with the drama surrounding that slur? What happened?

SUMMARIZING A LOT(yes, I promise the long post is summarized. If you support me, it would mean a lot to me if you read it, since people turning a blind eye has been the problem)

The context

There’s a game, and in the game there are 4 characters, two of them are poc and two are white. One of the white ones and the other two are friends and in a part of the story in a flashback they were making fun of the other white guy who is an utter piece of shit but is dying of a plague the main trio is looking the cure for, since the whole country is basically dying of it. A person pointed out that the bullying’s not very hero-like of the main trio, since they’re supposed to be the good guys and just look like a bunch of incompetent idiots while bullying the guy who has brought them together with the objective of healing him and by proxy healing the whole country. So far in every flashback of the story these three are seen fooling around, chit chatting, having sex, taking vacations, etc. The trio consists of a doctor (the white guy), a wizard, and a countess. Now the doctor and the wizard have been seen kinda… trying? To cure the plague, but just barely. The countess however hasn’t been shown doing anything of actual value, even though theoretically we know she’s ruling the damn country. But so far we’ve only seen her in her down time.

The problem

I didn’t know the person that pointed this out. I don’t agree with their point but I did say that this is an issue that takes place a lot with false representation in media, especially with women, especially with women of color, and almost always with queer women of color. They’re written as these amazing badasses in paper, and then when it comes to the story their overqualifications don’t *do* anything because advancing the plot is something left for cis white male everyman protagonists.

So we’re left with this unused resource that is just there as a token Strong Minority Representative Character™ that has no actual use in the story whatsoever and that is just there to make minorities including women shut the hell up because what else could we possibly want!?

This is a problem. A big one. And very similar to queerbaiting. I’m sure there must be a name for it.

So I pointed out that the countess is a black woman who is in the highest position of power in the setting and yet we’ve never seen her *do* anything related to that. She has lost her memory in game, so we see her drinking wine with some courtesans a couple of times, but what about law making? What about actual leadership? And this is especially troublesome in the flashbacks in the game because back then she was the only ruler and had her memories, so she was at the top of her game and still we’ve only seen her literally drink tea or wine, take a vacation, get drunk and splash in a fountain with her friends, and talk about eating delicacies.

We know theoretically that this isn’t everything she’s doing, because logically it couldn’t possibly be, that this is just her in her downtime. But then people say “this is NOT a strong queer female character of color” and they have the canonical backup of “she’s lazy and does nothing”. And this is something caused by poor writing.

It’s called dissonance of framing.

Theory: powerful queer black woman who is the leader, strong character.Screen time: queer black woman who does absolutely nothing of use with her time or extremely big skill set, token minority character.

The drama

The drama started because I pointed this out and immediately found people were calling the OP racist. As I said, I don’t know this person, at all, but in their page they had bio info that said they were from the Netherlands. They were really pissed at them because they used the word “colored” instead of saying “of color”. So I pointed out that if you’re gonna call someone racist, it can’t be because of the accidental use of a racial slur when they’re not native English speakers.

I was told then that they refused to listen to me for coddling a racist, to which I answer “I’m not, I don’t know this person, if they have been racist (turned up they were) to fucking hell with them, but I’ve seen this happen in real life and it got ugly very fast because non-conservative American young people or Americanized foreigners that are in constant contact with them (see most of Tumblr) forget that sometimes there are culturar barriers that aren’t easy to break especially if you speak different native tongues. I always give the benefit of the doubt because in my country the N word is used to say sweetie or darling, and I’ve seen a black girl break down in tears and be very rightfully pissed because she spoke Mexican Spanish (I think) but that didn’t mean she knew this particular cultural gap, and nobody around her thought of explaining it or being mindful, to quote just one of a dozen examples. We need to give people some leverage if a single misused word can end up ostracizing them. If I see them being racist, I’ll bring the torch. Else we could be incurring in racism or xenophobia ourselves.”

These people said that they would not read what I had to say.

They said that I had to learn to shut the fuck up.

They said that I should learn the language.

They called me a dipshit and told me I wasn’t valid.

After calling me a dipshit and telling me to shut the fuck up, I told them that I didn’t expect to have a conversation with them because they were two 19 yos one dissing and the other one hollering “TELL EM BESTIE!” in the back, and then they said they wouldn’t answer to me more because “I was being condescending”.

And this happens all the time. These people have never seen my face. They know I’m latina though. They’re both half white and trying to tell me I’m not interested in POC because I coddle racism, which is, again, not true. I’m saying I don’t go for the throat if I see an honest vocabulary mistake being made. They tell me I would know the difference if I was interested, because I’m on Tumblr and it’s a word you come across all the time.

I’ve been on Tumblr for 3 months.

Guys, colored is a 50′s racial slur, it’s not something you hear every day. I have been a fluent English speaker for almost a decade now, and I found out the word ‘colored’ existed just one year ago playing Bioshock Infinte, a game that takes place in the 1910′s. This is a mistake I could have made a mere year ago!

So, clearly, it’s not a word you get to hear every day. Shit, the first time someone called me a wetback I had to google it.

But these people refused to hear anything I had to say. They’ve been in the fandom of this game for a much longer time than I have so now I’ve been cut off entirely. I was ostracized, insulted, removed from a discord server, given the entire cold shoulder, all for saying that I won’t immediately think someone’s racist for accidentally using one of the dozens upon dozens of racial slurs that exist in the English language when they’re not a native speaker. When I started digging I found this person was being in fact quite racist, so I told them to go fuck themselves and then blocked them.

Damage is done, though. And honestly? Who the fuck cares. I know what I said, I know what I think, I know I am right, so these people can eat a dick given that they chose to not hear.

And that’s why I say that screaming BLATANT RACISM at a single easily made vocabulary mistake by a non-native English speaker is a big setback in the cause of fighting actual blatant racism.

But the truth is that it’s better this way. It’s gonna sound like I’m victimizing myself, but honestly, if I had to choose, I’d choose a non-racist (as much as one can actually be, of course) be ostracized and called racist, than an actual racist being excused and coddled.

So yeah, that’s what happened.

[travllingbunny]

So, I’ve seen the first two episodes of Marvel’s Inhumans, which aired a few days ago - somewhat out of curiosity, somewhat out of MCU completism. And, as you’ve heard from most people, they are bad.  I went in with very low expectations, and they were met. I mean, was it absolutely, incomparably terrible? Not exactly - but that's disappointing. If it were "so bad it's good", like The Room, it would be more fun and it would be possible to get ironic enjoyment out of it. But this is just bad and uninspired - it makes Iron Fist look like Jessica Jones in terms of quality - and makes you wonder "what exactly is the point of this?"

Spoilers below.

But something I didn’t know before I went in is that the show isn’t just bad because Medusa's hair looks awful (I couldn't help thinking she looked much better once they shaved her hair - and what a convenient way to cut the budget!), because the sets and costumes look cheap, or because we don't even see any impressive display of powers, which is crucial for a show like this.  

(Which may be the reason why the show was so quickly proclaimed to be a flop: as certain popular, acclaimed and Emmy-winning shows have proven, *cough cough* terrible writing and wooden acting on the part of actors in crucial roles can easily be overlooked by fans and critics, if you throw in a big budget, good special effects, visuals and music, a lot of action and cool things people like to see, like zombies/dragons (here, substitute that for displays of superpowers). (OK, it also helps if your show is on HBO and used to be mostly good years ago.) 

It’s not even bad just because the writing is lazy, uninspired and the dialogue is cliche ridden, while the acting ranges from OK  to poor. It’s not just bad because Anson Mount looks bored or constipated most of the time (or maybe he's just wondering "why did I sign up for this? Time to fire my agent!") or because there are big plot holes and idiocies.

The main problem with this show is that it expects you to care about and root for a bunch of characters without giving you any reason why (since they have just been introduced and haven’t been developed at all), while giving you plenty of reasons not to. Unless you’re a big fan of absolute monarchy and complete stickler for the proper right of succession, but also a fan of caste systems and racism. Which I’m going to go out on a limb and say most viewers aren’t fans of... especially since it happens to be anti-human racism, which the Royal Family is displaying at every turn. Since 100% of the viewers are presumably human themselves, I’m not sure how exactly the creators of this show are imagining the viewer reaction when ‘good guy’ characters show their disgust and contempt for the ‘villain’ for... being ‘just human’. 

I’ve seen people compare Maximus, the show’s designated villain, to Ramsay Bolton from GoT. This is lazy and nonsensical, as the two characters don't have anything in common except for being played by the same actor and being positioned as antagonists. That's probably why Rheon was cast - in hope people would identify Maximus as a villain because he's played by the guy who played Ramsay.  If anything, to continue with the GoT parallel, Maximus is like this show’s Carol Lannister: we know we’re supposed to see him as villainous, but there’s very little so far far that really marks him as a villain (except I guess threatening a cute dog?*) and I have no idea why exactly we should root against him and for Black Bolt, especially when he's right about most things, and the only counterargument the other characters have been able to muster is "Black Bolt is your king and he said so" or “you disgust me, you’re just human”. I'm sure they'll eventually show that he is really just after power and all his rhetoric is just opportunism, yada yada - but does that really make him worse than Black Bolt, who already has the power?

I seriously don’t know why I should root for Black Bolt, Medusa etc. I liked Jiaying from Agents of SHIELD way better than these guys. At least she had a backstory that explained her anti-human racism, and it was clear we weren’t supposed to see her actions as justified or root for her.

It also doesn’t help that Black Bolt's plan to bring the Inhumans from Earth to Attilan is idiotic. I can only imagine all the people on Earth who have just found out they are Inhuman being overjoyed with the idea they should leave their homes, jobs, loved ones and go live on the Moon... yeah, that would go over so well.

Let’s also mention a few other idiocies that jumped at me:

In what universe did that look like a river, let alone a "beautiful river"?

Black Bolt using a sign language renders the whole "Medusa speaking for Black Bolt" thing absurd. Why don't the others simply learn the sign language so they can understand their king? Also, he could occasionally write things down. I'd think they would also find texting useful, but I guess they didn't find a way to add that feature to their comlinks.

He could have also asked for a piece of paper to write something down when he was at the police station (seeing that the Royal Family and other Inhumans from Attilan speak English), or - if he can’t write, he could have used gestures, at least to signify that he wants to communicate - if he actually cared. His behaviour the entire time on Earth suggests he is either incredibly stupid, or a huge arrogant asshole. You don’t have to be able to speak to communicate something, if nothing else then the fact that you are unable to communicate in other ways.

The police also seemed really dumb - if a person is not speaking at all or letting out any other sounds, wouldn't your first assumption be that they are mute? But no one ever thinks of that? Or if they are also not communicating in any other way, that they may have a mental disability or problem of some kind? If someone doesn't want to give statements before their lawyer arrives, they will usually say "I want a lawyer". If someone doesn't speak English, they'll probably shake their head, say "I don't understand" in broken English, or say a few words in a language they speak, to signify they can't talk to you in English and that you should find an interpreter.

But another thing that also annoys me are the cheap attempts to garner sympathy for the main characters - such as showing Black Bolt as a victim of police brutality, and, I suppose, prejudice, since the police officers are shown calling him a “freak” while beating him up... so I guess we should realize they hate him for being Inhuman, rather than, you know, the fact he just acted like a total asshole, stole from a store, caused traffic accidents, endangered and hurt a bunch of people. Guys, isn’t that scene just the right kind of “police brutality out of racism” scene we needed? No? 

And then there’s the scene with Medusa’s hair getting cut - which I didn’t see as anything else but what it is. Since her hair is her weapon, it makes sense for her enemies who have just performed a coup and imprisoned her to cut it so she would not endanger them. It’s pretty straightforward. But no! Since then, I’ve seen at least two people call it a rape metaphor and say that the scene reminded them of rape. And now that they’ve put that thought in my head, I’m sure it was intentional.

Which is another reason to hate these episodes.  I detest "rape metaphors" that fiction and fandoms are so fond of. Lazy writing 101: How do we draw sympathy for a female character (who's not otherwise incredibly sympathetic) or make the antagonist look really villainous? Let's have some rape! Or, OK, if there's no rape... let's make this completely other thing that’s not rape kind of *look* like rape! That will do the trick! It's the 'go to' plot device. I'm completely fed up with all the intentional 'rape metaphors' in fiction, and I’m also fed up with all the times when it’s the fandom that finds moments and lines that have nothing to do with rape "rapey" (usually when it’s a male character who’s villainous or hated by the fandom. Because Rape is a Special Kind of Evil. You murdered a bunch of people? We can get over that. But you said a line that kinda sounds rapey, especially when taken out of context? Well, that’s it - the Moral Event Horizon crossed). I'm sorry - cutting Medusa's hair to remove her powers is not rape. Rape is rape. Go fuck yourselves, Inhumans writers & director. And we all know they would *never* try to make it look like that if it was a male character getting his hair cut to remove his powers, nor would the fandom be reading rape metaphors into it.