#the mixed-race experience

[asg-stuff]

In this powerful book, Natalie and Naomi Evans, founders of anti-racist advocacy and platform Everyday Racism, explore the complexities of mixed-race identities - from the discrimination endured by the 1.2 million mixed people in Britain and millions more elsewhere, to the privileges it can afford. (via The Mixed-Race Experience)

See also the Everyday Racism website

[neolxzr]

you know aira as a mixed race character could have been made SO much more interesting with this story if it was written. like the exact opposite of how it was written

so aira in japan was often assumed to be a foreigner because he's blonde and (supposedly) racially ambiguous looking. this bothered him because he didn't like people assuming that he was so much different from them when, in reality, he had pretty much the same childhood as any other japanese kid.

but imagine for this story, they travel to france but instead of immediately being mistaken for a local for some reason (how white is this boy supposed to look), he's instead ALSO assumed to be a foreigner while in france. he doesn't dress like a local, he's not speaking french, and his group of friends is a lot more obviously not white than he is. this should make him happy, right? since they're not assuming he's something he isn't, like they did at home. but it makes him instead just feel really... othered. if he doesn't fit in japan and he doesn't fit in in france, then where does he fit in? why is he too much of something for one group of people, but not enough of it for the other?

but does this not make him even more fit to stand at the side of alkaloid, the unit who's united by their shared experience of being othered? so maybe its alright if a lot of the people around him don't make him feel like he belongs. because he's already found where he's supposed to be.

[jawz]

i saw the tv glow is legitimately one of the stupidest, most tryhard movies i've ever seen in my entire life. absolute dogshit. and everyone is pretending it's the most lifechanging thing they've ever seen LOL give me a break! the gall to claim this is inspired by fucking DAVID LYNCH??? i can't

[casscainmainly]

Re: the cass and tim as twins thing-- it doesn't really do much for me either, but as a couple points: you can't have identical twins with different sexes, so they'd have to be fraternal which means they wouldn't look any more alike than non-twin siblings which can vary *a lot* (ime some people confuse me with my half sister who's 8 years older than me, and other people just refuse to believe I'm related to my whole brother who's only two years younger than me)

And honestly? I think it's more metaphorical than literal, people call themselves "twinsies" with friends all the time to indicate closeness, and not referencing literal appearance at all

I think it's sometimes metaphorical, but there are a lot of posts that specifically use 'twins' in the context of 'looking alike', and that's the main thrust of the posts that I've seen. Good point about the fraternal twins thing, twins definitely don't have to look alike! But I think a lot of people who say Cass and Tim are twins are specifically thinking of the look-alike aspect.

Like if you look up Cass and Tim are twins, you'll see many posts about their similar heights/builds/haircuts, which to be fair they do have. But it's ignoring all of their visual differences, which is way more important to me than their similarities.

So I think it's fine for people to say they're twins in terms of closeness, which for sure some people do! But the main thing, particularly for people who don't read comics/aren't aware of Cass and Tim's canonical relationship, is appearance, and I just don't really agree with that or see the appeal of it.

[sainz100]

Max Verstappen | 2024 Belgian GP | 📸 via Verstappencom's Insta

[rebellum]

I feel like... Perhaps... Arguing that transphobia is defined by murder and that anything other than murder doesn't even matter... May NOT be conducive to fighting for trans rights.

Like... people want the right to exist as they are. They want to have access to hrt and surgeries and prosthetics. People want access to clothes that fit them and reflect how they want to be seen. People want access to medical care (eg. Getting screened and treated for sex-based forms of cancer can be impossible if you have the "wrong" sex listed to receive those tests). People want to be respected and treated well. People want to not be sexually assaulted and beaten and abused. People want to have access to housing and jobs, and the protection to not lose those things for being trans. People want access to shelters for homeless people or survivors of domestic abuse. People want name changes.

Acting like all of those things don't matter because at least they weren't murderered by an individual (and instead die of suicide or state violence, or survive and suffer) isn't okay.

[bonnibellexox]

Cover art update 12.09.24

Want a spicy (18+), best friends to lovers, post apocalyptic, weirdly scientifically accurate book about autistic, queer ass characters in magical forests and underground dystopian bunkers?

Perhaps themes of loneliness, privilege, conspiracy, quality of life, freedom, ethics, self reflection, blissful ignorance, sacrifice, duty, spite and maybe even a little bit of holding hands in secret?

Omg same… anyway I’m getting MacDonald’s, you want some fries?

[covenofthearticulate]

thinking Thoughts about this passage again in relation to how Louis self-identifies

“I didn’t remember Europe from my childhood. Not even the voyage to America, really. That I had been born there was an abstract idea. Yet it had a hold over me which was as powerful as the hold France can have on a colonial. I spoke French, read French, remembered waiting for the reports of the Revolution and reading the Paris newspaper accounts of Napoleon’s victories. I remember the anger I felt when he sold the colony of Louisiana to the United States. How long the mortal Frenchman lived in me I don’t know. He was gone by this time, really, but there was in me that great desire to see Europe and to know it, which comes not only from the reading of all the literature and the philosophy, but from the feeling of having been shaped by Europe more deeply and keenly than the rest of Americans. I was a Creole who wanted to see where it had all begun."

Like, I actually have no idea if this was intentional or not but it's really interesting that in some ways Louis encapsulates the immigrant experience (albeit still from a privileged colonialist perspective). He never identifies as American, he hates the thought of Louisiana being sold to the United States, and yet his country of origin really only exits as a fantasy that he romanticizes. He's too French for America, and yet when he arrives in Paris, he's immediately made aware that he is not like the Parisian French. He's an outsider in both worlds.

Like, it's just genuinely so wild to me that he speaks French, he comes from an aristocratic French bloodline, and still self-identifies specifically as Creole.

Much To Think About.

[bmpmp3]

[noxofspades]

nimona not only spoke to my trans experience,but to my experience as a black autistic person.

The part where nimona was shape shifting into numerous different animals to fit in made me so emotional. Growing up, I'm the only person in my family and surroundings to be mixed with Filipino, Trinidadian, scottish and south African. And I'd try to blend in with all those cultures. But overall, i still feel out of place, especially because of my appearance.

I'm also autistic , and I'd act a certain way to fit in with a group but I was 'too weird' to fit in.

But the most painful parts of the movie is nimona appearing like a child, yet everyone seeing her as dangerous. That is the experience of a black kid, especially dark skinned ones. We were treated as more adult, mature and more threatening. We get disciplined more harshly in school. And it's worse when we are neurodivergent or have mental health issues. There's numerous studies about teachers admitting they see their black students as more grown up. Black kids that are perceived as girls are also more sexualized. Not to mention the case of a cop shooting and killing a 12 year old black boy, Tamir rice, because he was playing with a toy gun. The cop claimed he thought Tamir was a grown man and felt threatened.

so yeah, this movie managed to speak to numerous parts of my life experience. I usually have to ignore a lot of parts to somewhat see myself on screen. But this is first time in my entire life i felt seen. First time I've felt myself. I feel like a whole person being represented. Thank you to all the writers that worked on Nimona.

[fallloverfic]

So... on the subject of relative age in Delicious in Dungeon and Mithrun and fandom "jokes" I've seen folks complaining about. General manga and anime spoilers for character ages and names in the manga and anime below the read more:

On the one hand, I do get that people are (or at least were, I see it less these days) mad at the "Mithrun grandpa/old man" jokes/comments because "it's just cause he's disabled" and "relatively speaking, he's the same age as Chilchuck, and no one treats Chilchuck like he's an old man/something about how Chilchuck dislikes being treated differently, mentally, for his presumed age/state of mind".

Okay, yes. Relatively speaking, sure. There's a conversation to be had about the intersection of ableism and ageism and how we often baby (in a patronizing way) disabled people and the elderly, and how we prioritize youth and treat middle-aged people like their lives are over. (And maybe something about how he has silver hair, I don't know). On a more positive note, I love that, relatively speaking, possibly by Elvish standards, Mithrun is at/near middle-age (elvish age of maturity is 80 years, their average lifespan is 400 years), because that's a fascinating bit of world-building.

...On the other hand (please rest your pitchforks momentarily), Mithrun is literally 185 years old, he is the fifth oldest cast member for characters whose age we know as of the English release of the Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: The Adventurer's Bible (after the Elf Queen, who's 372, the elder Flokes, who are in their 200s, and Milsiril, who's four years older than Mithrun), and he is the oldest member of his group of the Canaries (he's literally 103 years older than his subordinate, Pattadol, and still 39 years older than Cithis, the next oldest Canary after Mithrun). And speaking of Chilchuck, who is, yes, a married father of multiple adult children... and also 29. Mithrun has lived over six times as long as Chilchuck has. (All ages come from Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: The Adventurer's Bible; Sissel + the other Golden Country residents don't have listed ages there, though they're at least 1000 years old, and the other elves don't show up). Mithrun was in recovery after the central watchtower dungeon for longer than at least five characters have been alive.

Age chart:

Elf Queen: 372

Tansu Floke: 210

Yarn Floke: 204

Milsiril: 189

Mithrun: 185

Cithis: 149

Otta: 137

Fleki: 130

Lycion: 126

Senshi: 112

Noor: 98

Totan: 95

Pattadol: 82

Gillin: 79

Brigan: 78

Holm: 76

Fionil: 62

Namari: 61

Daya, Invar: 58

Marcille: 50

Maizuru: 41

Chilchuk: 29

Laios, Toshiro, Hien: 26

Rin: 24

Falin, Benichidori: 23

Kabru, Mikbell: 22

Zon: 21

Kaka, Kiki: 20

Kuro, Doni: 18

Izutsumi, Inutade: 17

Leed: 14

Mithrun is older than Senshi, older than Marcille, older than Kabru's entire party, including Holm and Daya, and older than the oldest human we have an established age for, Maizuru (again, the first Adventurer's Bible doesn't list the Golden Country resident ages, and Mithrun is definitely younger than them, but also they're generally minor characters except for Yaad and Delgal). He's older than Senshi's former dwarf comrades were when they died. He's also apparently older than Flamela, the vice commander of the Canaries (she's 170, at least according to the fanwiki, which is possibly going off the Complete Adventurer's Bible).

He is of course younger than Obrin, his older brother, whose age we don't know, but we do know that Mithrun is the younger brother. He is also obviously much younger than the demon.

I also find it interesting that people are jumping to the big assumption that he's middle-aged (relatively) due to... I guess just chopping the average lifespan of elves in half and assuming that's what they think middle-aged is? We know the average lifespan of elves and when they come to maturity. We do not know what elves think of Mithrun's age or what their concept of being middle-aged is, if they have one. He could be considered young by elf standards. He could be considered old. We have no idea.

Thinking about the conversation in Volume 8, Chapter 51: Dumplings 2, it's just about total/average lifespan and how near the characters are to dying by average race age, not middle age.

Chilchuck on p.37: "What's the difference between our actual ages and how old we look?"

Laios: "Well, dwarfs do live two and a half times as long as tall-men."

Chilchuck: "If our actual ages affect our looks, then... ...I'm curious about remaining life. Will we age at the same rate we did before? Or will it match our bodies now?"

They never get an answer for this. We do get rough estimates for what one race's age means to another by comparing Laios' actual age (26) to what Senshi thinks dwarf!Laios is, age-wise (his 60s), and both ages put him near but not at assumed middle-age for the respective race (for tall-men it would be 30, for dwarfs, 100), but otherwise they don't come to many conclusions about anything. They just guess and try to change back before something worse happens. Marcille doesn't even say anything in this conversation about elf culture. She just panics because half-foots live shorter lives.

I would not personally call Mithrun a grandpa and I don't particularly connect with jokes about it. By Elvish standards, and relatively speaking, he is perhaps not, arguably, old. ...But he's no spring chicken, either, despite how strong and fast he is. By the standards of most characters he is interacting with in the story, he is the oldest person in the room, by a substantial margin (heck, the age gap between Mithrun and Cithis is more years than Chilchuck has lived). That doesn't make him a grandpa, either. But I do find people getting mad about folks pointing out this literally 185-year-old being is you know... 185 years old... odd...? Especially when he's around all these by and large substantially younger people (younger people who are adults by and large!!!) for most of the story. Again, there's definitely a conversation to be had about the intersection of ageism and ableism, and how we treat people who are middle-aged as if they're elderly even when they're able-bodied, and about the way other characters in-universe treat him (though the one time I think his age is pointed out, it's about the stuff he knows, not to mock him for it; mostly people treat him badly due to his disabilities (e.g., Fleki with his aiming in chapter 55, Cithis in the Adventurer's Bible), not because of his age)... but it does feel very much like people are ignoring that he is honestly one of the oldest characters in the story, and not by dint of being the oldest youth, but because he's a character who has lived to be nearly 200 years old.

[salty-software-engineer]

Man I just finished Babel and I was excited to read discussions online because there's so much going on in it with so many little things and just....angry white people. Everywhere. Truly a dead dove moment.

[quatregats]

No actually in all honesty I feel like last time I went to India at 12 I had a tiny bit of impostor syndrome but was mostly very comfortable there, whereas in the ensuing 10+ years, I've somehow gotten really bad impostor syndrome about being Indian at all and have managed to gaslight myself into thinking that I have no knowledge of anything to do with being Malayalee, which is....truly fascinating, to say the least. Anyways needless to say that the second I got off the plane is Trivandrum I was immediately cured of that notion :')

[robertmatejcek]

Mission Control - digital media - robert matejcek - 2024

"The spaceman says, 'Everybody look down… It's all in your mind'…" - The Killers - Spaceman

tags:

[laniidae-passerine]

sorry for loving Ed and Izzy more than Stede but maybe they shouldn’t have made Ed like that (a fellow mixed race babygirl suffering under her mental illnesses with a sadistic streak that is both informed by and independent of her childhood traumas) and Izzy like that (absurdly pathetic but in need of help and trying to get better)

[bobthedragon2]

AND ANOTHER THING I say while feeling manic about my immigrant culture