WritingWithColor (Posts tagged media)

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azzylon

I want to talk about some of the antiblackness, antiblack racism, and general fuckery in the first episode of Reservation Dogs

First off, I’m not going to address anything but the antiblackness because I’m trying to stay in my lane & I’m not necessarily advocating for cancelling the show because I stopped watching it after episode one anyway because I found it to be extremely degrading with regards to its presentation of Black people. I’m making this post because I have not seen anyone besides my friend Kih, a Black Native, mention anything negative about the portrayals of Black ppl in this show and I found that absolutely ridiculous considering how bad it truly is.

Content warning for discussions of antiblackness under the cut.

Keep reading

azzylon

People warned me that episode 4 was way worse and holy shit it’s worse. Extremely huge trigger warning for cultural appropriation and what a lot of my friends think is blackface. 

I am not kidding- it was so upsetting I had to come back and put this under a read more because it got to me.

Keep reading

writingwithcolor

Antiblackness is rife in Indigenous communities, from how antiblack racism has infected all societies across the globe and how many North American tribes owned slaves (including those who were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma, where this was shot)

Follow Afro-Native voices such as ChoctawFreedman on twitter. However, please do not go to random pages demanding education, and instead simply watch and learn.

If you want to do something to help Black Natives directly, please check out this post for the two Black and Native people who are mutuals of OP who need mutual aid. If you want to help compensate the OP for doing the labour that I am now reblogging, please check out their mutual aid post.

Be on the lookout for antiblack racism in all Indigenous-authored media.

Native people can be antiblack. We deserve to be checked for it. We deserve to be boycotted for it like every other group.

Indigenous media cannot be improved unless Afro-Native voices are given high priority, and racism in the media we have produced is challenged. Let the show know you want better. It’s not acceptable that this show is unwatchable for Afro-Natives or any other Black person.

Please learn about Afro-Native struggles, tribal slave ownership, and antiblackness perpetuated by Indigenous peoples. When “Native American” is a legal definition that has land rights attached, systemic antiblack racism has very deep ramifications.

Don’t watch this show, and tell them exactly why. Be loud about it. Just because this is the first of its kind, all Indigenous written and directed, that doesn’t make the antiblackness excusable.

~Lesya

Edit Jan 8, 2022: at the time this ask was posted (August 2021), I was not aware NDN Thunder was falsely claiming Native ancestry. I’ve removed their link from this post as a result

reblog anti black racism native american racism caricatures black face reservation dogs media

Publishing stories with spouse’s name (Arabic) even though i’m white

@azurlys asked:

I am a white author who plans to publish using a pen name with my significant other’s last name. We are legally married but I have not (and cannot) legally change my name. (We don’t live in the USA.) They have supported and nurtured my writing like no one else, and the use of their name is to honor them. However, the last name is an Arabic last name. What are some ways to be up front and honest about this when it comes to putting my writing out there?

Assume Assumptions Will Be Made

People will make assumptions about your background based on your name and there’s no real way around that. If you are writing books with Arab characters, people will probably assume you’re representing your own community and experiences. You can be upfront about it by mentioning your background in your author bio and generally in any place where you introduce yourself or talk about your writing. You can also make sure to correct any mistakes that may occur if you are offered opportunities reserved for authors of color, or placed on lists of authors of color. Still, you won’t be able to entirely avoid misleading some people, so it’s up to you to decide whether you’re okay with that.

-Niki

Your intentions can be as pure as a baby’s giggle, but there will always be strangers who flat-out won’t believe it. Unless you are very comfortable with some people believing the worst of you, I’d advise against it.

Plus, there really isn’t a way to make sure every single reader sees you being “up-front and honest about this,” because plenty of people don’t have Twitter or read author bios on the book or whatever.

–Shira

I agree with the above points. However, I especially want to emphasize what Niki and Shira’s are saying: You can be as well-intentioned and transparent as you wish. It will likely not make a difference. You can no more stop people from forming their own assumptions about you than you can stop them from thinking. Thus, I strongly think the alternative suggestions by Emme below for honoring your partner are worth considering.

- Marika.

Politics of Race and Race-faking in Publishing

Providing my own thoughts from a discussion that Mod Niki facilitated!

Considering how so many people with “ethnic” non-white names must assimilate in order to be seen as palatable for western audiences, I do not feel comfortable with white people doing the inverse, despite any good intentions. Too often we have “racefaking” and intentional deceit when it comes to exploiting opportunities set aside for people of color.

–Emme

I agree. I don’t think it is realistic to assume that you are operating in a world where the identity suggested to your audience by your pen-name won’t impact:

  1. How editors interact with your story
  2. The likelihood of your being published
  3. Who your audience believes you are

Lastly, from a professional standpoint, you should consider that once your body of work is associated with a given pen-name, it will be difficult to switch should you need to for any reason.

- Marika.

Alternatives?

There are certainly ways to honor your significant other aside from publishing your work under their surname (as Mod Niki and Mod Shira described above):

  • A dedication page? 
  • Creating a main character (of SO’s ethnic background) sharing that surname in your story?

These, in my opinion, are much more solid ways to honor people in your writing and allow for a natural progression of explanation (i.e. People will be interested in what you have to say about creating your world, a heartfelt message you have for your SO before you story begins).

I emphasize Mod Niki’s suggestion above, if you did continue to publish under your spouse’s surname. How transparent are you being about your own race? Is your reasoning for writing under an Arabic surname clear to your readers and publishers?

–Emme

Partner’s Perspective?

You’ve talked a lot about why you want to use your partner’s pen-name for your writing. How does your partner feel about this? If it is known that the two of you are married, anything you write with your partner’s name will also be linked to them in the public’s eye. How do both of you feel about that? Are either of you active on social media? How will you both cope if there is public outcry over the optics of a white, Westerner publishing under an ostensibly non-Western name (I recognize that sentiments might differ between different international markets, but twitter, instagram and tumblr being what they are, let’s not kid ourselves).

As a mixed person who regularly has to be tactful about which identity I present to different audiences, I view this question more as an opportunity to give advice than to tell you what to do, so please take everyone’s responses to heart and then make the choice best for you, your partner and your conscience.

- Marika.

Media Publishing pen-names publishing under a BIPOC pen-name when not BIPOC race politics identity politics race-faking WWC asks
writingwithcolor

Can white people write POC as main characters?

writingwithcolor

@horse-faced-activist-gay said:

Recently a writing group I “audit” had a discussion about white authors writing poc, and the unanimous takeaway was “of course do it, just never as the pov/main character(s).” The argument was that no matter how careful or well researched, the pov will always come off like a white character in “digital blackface.” That there needed to be a good reason to write from that perspective, ie if the character’s race changed it should change the story? My pov character is Black; I’m white. I’ve been following this blog a long time and implementing the advice, but is the essence of me trying to write from her perspective misguided? I’ve now seen more than one author echo these sentiments. Is this just an excuse for white authors to avoid writing poc in lead roles, or an attempt not to overstep readers/authors of color? I’m very confused; any help would be greatly appreciated.

YES. 

White people absolutely can write PoC as main characters if not the protagonists of their stories! 

I didn’t create this blog for people to make PoC side characters 24/7! Not at all. Please write People of Color as main characters, no matter who you are.

- Colette

More reading: WWC General Topics Compilation

W a o.

Such toxic virtue signaling! If I’m being charitable, at best this is cowardice. At worst, this is the kind of BS discourse that is used to attack writers of color when they attempt anything besides personal memoirs. I recommend finding a new writing group. 

- Marika

Very concerned about the state of this writing group. 

~ Mod Rina

P.S. You’re right, OP, it is definitely an excuse.

writingwithcolor

Many of the responses to this post have indicated it’s fine for white people to write PoC MCs so long as you aren’t publishing them, because publishing is set up to favour white voices and you’ll be taking slots away from an author of a non-white background if you write diversity.

When it comes to the English-speaking Western market, the issue with this is twofold:

1- Most WWC readers will not be traditionally published writers; the odds of anyone becoming one are very low

2- It places a little too much blame on individuals for systemic problems in an industry

The Statistics of Becoming a Published Author

Quite a large number of people attempt to become published authors. Very few of them make it, and even fewer make their whole living off of it. So when we are giving advice, we rarely assume that these people will become professional writers, or at least, will become professional writers as their sole job description.

Also, the indie publishing market is where quite a few marginalized writers end up going, either from not being able to gain traction in traditional publishing or from simply preferring the creative control. In the indie market, there are no slots for you to take, as anyone can enter the market. 

(White privilege is still in effect in the indie market, in terms of who gets talked about the most and whose social media efforts pay off the highest, but there is a slightly more equitable potential from a lack of gatekeepers limiting the flow of stories)

As a result, lecturing people who have a very low chance of making it in traditional publishing about how terrible they are if they try to publish because they’re doing it wrong has very little point, and ends up serving as virtue signalling.

Diversity in creators is a deeply important thing, yes, and supporting diverse creators will help move the needle. But:

Systemic Change Needs Systemic Solutions

So you have successfully convinced a whole bunch of white writers that they cannot have diverse MCs, because if they do, they are stealing slots.

Have you convinced any editors or agents? No. And it’s the agents and editors who will allow new writers to come in. As evident by two literary agencies imploding in the wake of 2020’s BLM protests, and one industry organization near-imploding at the start of 2020 from racism, these structures are very racist and will not be convinced easily.

Talking to writers, especially aspiring writers, is talking to the group with the least amount of power in the situation. Traditionally published authors, both established and trying-to-break-in, are at the mercy of their agents, editors, and marketing team. They are also at the mercy of the governing bodies of their organizations, which may very well not have their best interests at heart.

Publishing is very white, yes. Publishing talks a big talk over being progressive without actually being progressive, yes. You can’t fix those issues without addressing the poverty wages that favour those with independent wealth and/or are secondary incomes for their household, the lack of remote work opportunities (the pandemic ground traditional publishing to a halt, because most publishers didn’t even allow electronic signatures until the pandemic), the fact major publishing houses only exist in expensive cities like NYC, and the lack of part-time opportunities.

How, pray tell, can even a large group of writers fix that, when they are not the ones who are doing budgets for publishing companies? 

Writers are not a unionized profession. There are some organizations that have some metrics of checking the industry, but there is a definitive lack of any single writers group that can create a collective strike until diversity demands are met. If a writer, or even a group of writers, strikes—they’re simply replaced. There is far, far too much supply of people who would cross the picket line to fill up those slots for writer actions to have much impact.

The Power of an Established Author

This might be controversial, but an established author adding diversity to their work can indeed help authors from more diverse backgrounds write fun stories for themselves.

Publishing is at the mercy of “the market.” They make all of their actions in the name of “the market.” And since publishing margins are so thin, and they pay most of the costs up-front, they will base everything off what has already sold.

Their sample sizing is small and their studies are flawed, but this is what they’re working with.

If an established author does something like, say, write a fairly prominent character who is of x marginalization, and that representation is done well, and that representation sells and leads to people snapping up that book—you have now added data to “the market” that says that this type of character is profitable, and therefore allowed to exist.

Asian stories began expanding in film after Avatar: The Last Airbender and Crazy Rich Asians, because network and studio executives saw these stories could be wildly popular. Yes, AtLA had problems and got ten buckets of things wrong from the start. Yes, CRA was xenophobic from an intra-Asian perspective. However, both were groundbreaking for their times. The same could be said for Buffy, both for being groundbreaking at the time and not standing up to newer representation in the same genre.

Will it guarantee a trickle down? No. But it does help show the white team that these stories are profitable. And you get enough clamouring for those kinds of stories and enough sales for these kinds of stories, and you begin to see creator profiles diversify.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to act as a bridge between white people and creators of color, by writing a story that has a not-white MC in a voice that’s still tinted by whiteness, but is hopefully not completely white and allows for the less white voices to come in. That is what it means to use your white privilege for good.

Consumer vs Writer

The ones who have some power to move the needle are consumers. Consumers can buy not-white authors and prove the market can support multiple of them. Consumers can seek out the indie market to show large publishers that people want to buy certain kinds of stories (this is how LGBTQ+ romances began to break into mainstream).

Note that this is still not systemic change that would allow the publishing industry to diversify, but it is something that would allow some change in what authors receive offers of traditional publishing.

WWC’s advice is primarily to writers. We drop in many notes to read diversity, especially if you want to write with it, because it is important to support real Creators of Color instead of exclusively supporting the characters in media themselves, but we are speaking to writers.

Consuming Diversity

Consuming diverse media will help you write diverse media, doubly so if you are writing something that might be touchy with the group in question.

This has both the benefit of supporting the creators of color and encouraging the market to diversify, but it also gives you very important data around what is safe to be discussed in media. Only good things can come from diversifying your media selection, both in the books themselves, and seeking out reviewers of color to share in the joys of those books while also exposing yourself to new perspectives.

You, as an outsider, cannot determine the boundaries of what is hurtful and what is not. Only insiders can do that. If you can’t find writers from the background you wish to use writing about a certain thing— don’t do it as an outsider. And if you can barely find any authors from that background at all, that’s a sign you need to vote with your dollar first, try getting it published second.

You will need to sample a large, varying group of authors to get a general sense where the boundaries are— and you’ll never make everyone happy. But at least if you have absorbed a lot of stories, you’ll know you’re within some people’s boundaries of what’s allowed to be discussed and not.

On Identity Stories

Probably the most controversial of the lot.

Depending on which group you talk to, you’ll either get an “absolutely not” or a “well, we have enough material out there, so… run it by us first but go ahead and try?” You can and will get these differing opinions within the same group.

Cultural competency is a skill learned over time, particularly when leveraged by experience. If you are starting from “I’m from a mostly white town that has maybe one token PoC family I was never close with”, chances are you’re better off starting with diverse side characters and consuming a whole lot of stories from non-white people before attempting to write a character of colour as a main character.

But if you’re from a really diverse town, you were perhaps the token white family around, and you’ve experienced tons and tons of cultural sharing from just making friends? You will be in a much stronger position to write something that really tackles deep issues.

If we examine the backgrounds of many white authors who are considered to be more successful by BIPOC communities when writing non-white characters, even for stories centered on identity, we see these patterns of cultural competency. These are individuals who have lived or worked in settings where they themselves are the minority, who have studied the regions and cultures they feature in their stories, who have spent time in fields that put them in touch with a wide variety of human experiences: diplomacy, teaching, library sciences, healthcare and social work. 

In short, they are people who, independent of their writing career, have done active work in connecting to people different from them. This does not mean that being a schoolteacher automatically makes a white person better at writing with diversity. However a white person who chose to become a teacher in order to address inequality in education is more likely to utilize the skills they might employ to better understand the perspectives of their non-white students to create realistic non-white characters. 

In conclusion

Discourse activists often treat structural issues as if they are made up of isolated problems, each with a single solution. However, most workable solutions must be multi-pronged. Imagine the probable profile of a paid, white author. Compared to their BIPOC counterpart, this person is more likely to:

  • Be published in a traditional publishing setting
  • Have wide visibility with consumers
  • Enjoy the economic and political freedom to write as they please

Much of this is because Western publishing environments afford them these privileges. However, while one can reasonably ask people to be aware of their privilege, it is less reasonable to expect them to restrict their own opportunities and act against their own interests (Would you?).  Operating with zero-sum logic is rarely as effective as encouraging people to pursue mutual benefit.

More sensible recommendations for the public as a whole, including writers, may include: 

  • Encouraging white writers to promote their POC colleagues
  • Rewarding established authors who provide networking/ mentorship opportunities to aspiring POC writers
  • Demanding greater transparency from publishers on editorial staff demographics, promotional and marketing budgets and salaries for authors
  • Pursuing expansion of consumer tastes
  • Incentivizing educational institutions to nurture POC writers
  • Supporting the number of POC involved in the criticism, evaluation and analysis of compelling media (including independent reviewers such as booktubers of color)
  • Increasing public consumption of written media through book fairs, libraries, independent bookstores while reducing reliance on monopolies (Hi Amazon) for distribution.

It is easy to point out problems in society. It is a much more difficult and involved commitment to be a part of the solution.

- WWC

P.S: Individual moderator perspectives will be coming at a later date, likely in a separate post 

creators creator responsibility white privilege publishing reblog media writers

platypan asked:

I'm writing an AU of a movie that takes place in the 1880s USA, where a travelling white character and a Jewish character are waylaid by Native Americans, who they befriend. Probably because it was written by and about PoC (Jews) the scene actually avoids the stuff on your Native American Masterpost, but I'd still like to do better than a movie made in the 1980's, and I feel weird cutting them from the plot entirely. I have a Jewish woman reading it for that, but are there any things you (1/1)

2/2 1880s western movie ask–are there things you’d LIKE to see in a movie where a white man and a Jewish man run into Native Americans in the 1880s? I do plan to base them on a real tribe (Ute, probably) and have proper housing/clothes and so forth, but right now I’m just trying to avoid or subvert awful cowboy movie tropes. Any ideas?

White and Jewish Men, Native American interactions in 1880s

I am vaguely concerned with how you only cite one of our posts about Native Americans, that was not written by a Native person, and do not cite any of the posts relating to this time period, or any posts relating to representation in media. 

Sidenote: if you want us to give accurate reflections of the media you’re discussing, please tell us the NAME. I cannot go look up this movie based off this description to give you an idea of what my issues are with this scene, and must instead trust that the representation is good based off your judgement. I cannot make my own judgement. This is a problem. Especially since your whole question boils down to “this scene is good but not great and I want it to be great. How can I do that?”

Your baseline for “good” could very well be my baseline for “terrible hack job”. I can’t give you the proper education required for you to be able to accurately evaluate the media you’re watching for racist stereotypes if you don’t tell me what you’re even working with.

When you’re writing fanfic where the media is directly relevant to the question, please tell us the name of the media. We will not judge your tastes. We need this information in order to properly help you.

Moving on.

I bring up my concern for you citing that one—exceptionally old—post because it is lacking in many of the tropes that don’t exist in the media critique field but exist in the real world. This is an issue I have run into countless times on WWC (hence further concern you did not cite any other posts) and have spoken about at length. 

People look at the media critique world exclusively, assume it is a complete evaluation of how Native Americans are seen in society, and as a result end up ignoring some really toxic stereotypes and then come to the inbox with “these characters aren’t abc trope, so they’re fine, but I want to rubber stamp them anyway. Anything wrong here?”. The answer is pretty much always yes. 

Issue one: “Waylaid” by Native Americans

This wording is extremely loaded for one reason: Native American people are seen as tricksters, liars, and predators. This is the #1 trope that shows up in the real world that does not show up in media critique. It’s also the trope I have talked about the most when it comes to media representation, so you not knowing the trope is a sign you haven’t read the entirety of the Native tag—which is in the FAQ as something we would really prefer you did before coming at us to answer questions. It avoids us having to re-explain ourselves.

Now, hostility is honestly to be expected for the time period the movie is set in. This is in the beginnings (or ramping up) of residential schools in America* and Canada, we have generations upon generations of stolen or killed children, reserves being allocated perhaps hundreds of miles from sacred sites, and various wars with Plains and Southwest peoples are in full force (Wounded Knee would have happened in 1890, in December, and the Dakoa’s mass execution would have been in 1862. Those are just the big-name wars. There absolutely were others). 

*America covers up its residential schools abuse extremely thoroughly, so if you try to research them in the American context you will come up empty. Please research Canada’s schools and apply the same abuse to America, as Canada has had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission about residential schools and therefore is more (but not completely) transparent about the abuse that happened. Please note that America’s history with residential schools is longer than Canada’s history. There is an extremely large trigger warning for mass child death when you do this research.

But just because the hostility is expected does not mean that this hostility would be treated well in the movie. Especially when you consider the sheer amount of tension between any Native actors and white actors, for how Sacheen Littlefeather had just been nearly beaten up by white actors at the 1973 Academy Awards for mentioning Wounded Knee, and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act had only been passed two years prior in 1978. 

These Native actors would not have had the ability to truly consent to how they were shown, and this power dynamic has to be in your mind when you watch this scene over. I don’t care that the writers were from a discriminated-against background. This does not always result in being respectful, and I’ve also spoken about this power imbalance at length (primarily in the cowboy tag).

Documentaries and history specials made in the 2010s (with some degree of academic muster) will still fall into wording that harkens Indigenous people to wolves and settlers as frightened prey animals getting picked off by the mean animalistic Natives. This is not neutral, or good. This is perpetuating the myth that the settlers were helpless, just doing their own thing completely unobtrusively, and then the evil territorial Native Americans didn’t want to share.

To paraphrase Batman: if I had a week I couldn’t explain all the reasons that’s wrong.

How were these characters waylaid by the Native population? Because that answer—which I cannot get because you did not name the media—will determine how good the framing is. But based on the time period this movie was made alone, I do not trust it was done respectfully.

Issue 2: “Befriending”

I mentioned this was in an intense period of residential schools and land wars all in that area. The Ute themselves had just been massacred by Mormons in the Grass Valley Massacre in 1865, with ten men and an unknown number of women and children killed thanks to a case of assumed association with a war chief (Antonga Black Hawk) currently at war with Utah. The Paiute had been massacred in 1866. Over 100 Timpanogo men had been killed, with an unknown number of women and children enslaved by Brigham Young in Salt Lake City in 1850, with many of the enslaved people dying in captivity (those numbers were not tracked, but I would assume at least two hundred were enslaved— that’s simply assuming one woman/wife and one child for every man, and the numbers could have very well been higher if any war-widows and their children were in the group, not to mention families with multiple children). This is after an unknown group of Indigenous people had been killed by Governor Brigham Young the year prior, to “permanently stop cattle theft” from settlers. 

The number of Native Americans killed in Utah in the 1800s—just the number of dead counted (since women and children weren’t counted)—in massacres not tied to war (because there was at least one war) is over 130. The actual number of random murders is much higher; between the uncounted deaths and how the Governor had issued orders to “deal with” the problem of cattle theft permanently. I doubt you would have been tried or convicted if you murdered Indigenous peoples on “your” land. This is why it’s called state sanctioned genocide.

This is not counting the Black Hawk War in Utah (1865-1872), which the Ute were absolutely a part of (the wiki articles I read were contradictory if Antonga Black Hawk was Ute or Timpanogo, but the Ute were part of it). The first official massacre tied to the war—the Bear River Massacre, ordered by the US Military—places the death count of just that singular massacre at over five hundred Shoshone, including elders, women, and children. It would not be unreasonable to assume that the number of Indigenous people killed in Utah from 1850, onward, is over a thousand, perhaps two or three.

Pardon me for not reading beyond that point to list more massacres and simply ballparking a number; the source will be linked for you to get an accurate number of dead.

So how did they befriend the Native population? Let alone see them as fully human considering the racism of the time period? Natives were absolutely not seen as fully human so long as they were tied to their culture, and assimilation equalling some sliver of respect was already a stick being waved around as a threat. This lack of humanity continues to the present day.

I’m not saying friendship is impossible. I am saying the sheer levels of mistrust that would exist between random wandering groups of white/pale men and Indigenous communities wouldn’t exactly make that friendship easy. Having the scene end be a genuine friendship feels ignorant and hollow and flattening of ongoing genocide, because settlers lied about their intentions and then lined you up for slauther (that’s how the Timpanogo were killed and enslaved).

Utah had already done most of its mass killing by this point. The era of trusting them was over. There was an active open hunting season, and the acceptable targets were the Indigenous populations of Utah.

(sources for the numbers: 

List of Indian Massacres in North America
Black Hawk War (1865-1872))

Issue 3: “Proper housing/clothes and so forth”

Do you mean Western style settlements and jeans? If yes, congratulations you have written a reservation which means the land-ripped-away wounds are going to be fresh, painful, and sore.

You do not codify what you mean by “proper”, and proper is another one of those deeply loaded colonial words that can mean “like a white man” or “appropriate for their tribe.” For the time period, it would be the former. Without specifying which direction you’re going for, I have no idea what you’re imagining. And without the name of the media, I don’t know what the basis of this is.

The reservation history of this time period seems to maybe have some wiggle room; there were two reservations allocated for the Ute at this time, one made in 1861 and another made in 1882 (they were combined into the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in 1886). This is all at the surface level of a google and wikipedia search, so I have no idea how many lived in the bush and how many lived on the reserve. 

There were certainly land defenders trying to tell Utah the land did not belong to them, so holdouts that avoided getting rounded up were certainly possible. But these holdouts would be far, far more hostile to anyone non-Native.

The Ute seemed to be some degree of lucky in that the reserve is on some of their ancestral territory, but any loss of land that large is going to leave huge scars. 

It should be noted that reserves would mean the traditional clothing and housing would likely be forbidden, because assimilation logic was in full force and absolutely vicious at this time. 

It’s a large reserve, so the possibility exists they could have accidentally ended up within the borders of it. I’m not sure how hostile the state government was for rounding up all the Ute, so I don’t know if there would have been pockets of them hiding out. In present day, half of the Ute tribe lives on the reserve, but this wasn’t necessarily true historically—it could have been a much higher percentage in either direction.

It’s up to you if you want to make them be reservation-bound or not. Regardless, the above mentioned genocide would have been pretty fresh, the land theft in negotiations or already having happened, and generally, the Ute would be well on their way to every assimilation attempt made from either residential schools, missionaries, and/or the forced settlement and pre-fab homes.

To Answer Your Question

I don’t want another flattened, sanitized portrayal of genocide.

Look at the number of dead above, the amount of land lost above, the amount of executive orders above. And try to tell me that these people would be anything less than completely and totally devastated. Beyond traumatized. Beyond broken hearted. Absolutely grief stricken with almost no soul left.

Their religion would have been illegal. Their children would have been stolen. Their land was taken away. A saying about post-apocalyptic fiction is how settler-based it is, because Indigenous people have already lived through their own apocalypse.

It would have all just happened at the time period this story is set in. All of the grief you feel now at the environment changing so drastically that you aren’t sure how you’ll survive? Take that, magnify it by an exponential amount because it happened, and you have the mindset of these Native characters.

This is not a topic to tread lightly. This is not a topic to read one masterpost and treat it as a golden rule when there is too much history buried in unmarked, overfull graves of school grounds and cities and battlefields. I doubt the movie you’re using is good representation if it doesn’t even hint at the amount of trauma these Native characters would have been through in thirty years.

A single generation, and the life that they had spent millennia living was gone. Despite massive losses of life trying to fight to preserve their culture and land.

Learn some history. That’s all I can tell you. Learn it, process it, and look outside of checklists. Look outside of media. 

And let us have our grief.

~ Mod Lesya

On Question Framing

Please allow me the opportunity to comment on “are there things you’d LIKE to see in a movie where a white man and a Jewish man run into Native Americans in the 1880s?” That strikes me as the same type of question as asking what color food I’d like for lunch. I don’t see how the cultural backgrounds of characters I have literally no other information about is supposed to make me want anything in particular about them. I don’t know anything about their personalities or if they have anything in common.

Compare the following questions:

“Are there things you’d like to see in a movie where two American women, one from a Nordic background and one Jewish, are interacting?” I struggle to see how our backgrounds are going to yield any further inspiration. It certainly doesn’t tell you that we’re both queer and cling to each other’s support in a scary world; it doesn’t tell you that we uplift each other through mental illness; it doesn’t go into our 30 years of endless bizarre inside jokes related to everything from mustelids to bad subtitles.

Because: “white”, “Jewish”, and “Native American” aren’t personality words. You can ask me what kind of interaction I’d like to see from a high-strung overachieving woman and a happy-go-lucky Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and I’ll tell you I’d want fluffy f/f romance. Someone else might want conflict ultimately resolving in friendship. A third person might want them slowly getting on each other’s nerves more and more until one becomes a supervillain and the other must thwart her. But the same question about a cultural demographic? That told me nothing about the people involved.

Also, the first time I meet a new person from a very different culture, it might take weeks before discussion of our specific cultural differences comes up. As a consequence, my first deep conversations with a Costa Rican American gentile friend were not about Costa Rica or my Jewishness but about things we had in common: classical music and coping with breakups–which are obviously conversations I could have had if we were both Jewish, both Costa Rican gentiles, or both something else. So in other words, I’m having trouble seeing how knowing so little about these characters is supposed to give me something to want to see on the page.

Thank you for understanding.

(And yes, I agree with Lesya, what’s with this trend of people trying to explain their fandom in a roundabout way instead of mentioning it by name? It makes it harder to give meaningful help….)

–Shira

platypan genocide native american North America america history american history media representation asks
eronthebender
whoareyouandwhyshouldicare

Representation Matters

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fightbee

I’m a preschool teacher and theres a black boy in my class named Miles and when I showed him the trailer he got SO excited, everytime I see him I say what’s up spiderman and he practically yells “IM SPIDERMAN!!!!” With the biggest smile on his face. Representation DOES matter and I’m happy that my kids are able to see more people who look like us in positive media :’)

whoareyouandwhyshouldicare

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Originally posted by bluewritesthings

Same thing happened with my daughter when was 7 and Annie came out. All of a sudden she wanted to go to Broadway to try out for the lead role. We had seen the original one several times but it never occurred to her that she could be any too. One more time for the cheap seats

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oftimelordsandwizards

I work at a bookstore and a few weeks ago a little black boy came in wearing a spider-man shirt. I asked him who his favorite spider man was. He replied Peter Parker. I told him mine was Miles.He didn’t know who Miles was so I took him to see the cover of a book with Miles on it. I watched a look of confusion come over his face. He looked up at me and said. “But he is black.” I said “Yeah. Spider-man is black is those comics.” His eyes got big and he grabbed the comics from my hand before running off yelling. “Mom! Mom! Spider-man looks like me! Spider-man looks like me!”

biggest-gaudiest-fish

MY HEART IS MELTING

representation matters Representation black gifs media reblog

gee-nx asked:

hi, quick q: how much should i as a white person trust native american representation in classic western novels (karl may's work, etc)? should i generally rely more on the ones that have televised versions, since there were native people involved in the production? thanks!

Which media representations of Natives to trust?

I wouldn’t trust anything “pre-80s classic”, especially “classic Western”, unless the modern members of the tribe that were consulted still approve of the movies in 2019. And even then, I’d want a focus to be on elder opinion or kids who had been directly impacted by how the movies had shown their people. Basically, anyone who hadn’t been involved still has to approve.

I took a quick look at the dates of classic Western movies, and a lot of them were done in the 30s to 60s, from the looks of things. This means they were made before Natives had freedom of religion (1978), making the playing field incredibly unequal in any production house. White people could do what they wanted, and Natives couldn’t express that’s not how the tradition worked without risking going to jail for still practicing illegal beliefs.

You’ve also got to keep in mind that racism in Hollywood was bad enough Marlon Brando boycotted the event and allowed Sacheen Littlefeather to accept in his stead, and she drew attention to the inequality+ Wounded Knee. She was only allowed 60 seconds to speak, and at least one person had to be restrained from attacking her backstage for simply expressing the comment that Native people were treated terribly in Hollywood and by America. She was blacklisted from Hollywood, and the government encouraged it because they didn’t want attention on Wounded Knee (there was a media blackout on it at the time, and this got around it). This was in 1973.

Even though Twilight earns exactly 1 point for casting actual Native actors, and I’ve recommended it for finding fancasts because of it, that doesn’t stop the Natives in the movie from being portrayed terribly. There was, again, a deep power imbalance in the production vs the actors. “Involved” doesn’t mean “given equal voice.”

Co-signing does not equal a good representation. When you have a power imbalance as deep as white/PoC in the production side of media, you’re reliant on white people accepting your narratives to get your foot in the door. Shenee Howard, a Black woman who helps women start their own businesses, wrote a great thread on this topic. The most relevant quote is:

There are 3 ways to make it out here. Connections/mentorship,  Influencer route and LUCK. The most common of the 3 is the “connections” route. If you are a writer who wants to get read you have to know SOMEONE. That’s the first hurdle.

That someone you know (if you get that far) will most likely be white and the way your work is perceived is completely determined by how that white person thinks about how black people or POC exist in the world. I’ve had people tell me my script was funny but unrealistic because it didn’t fit the black struggle narrative they had in their head. This is also why when POC enter contests the only winners tend to be “brave stories about POC struggling” vs. comedy or even fantasy projects. There is nothing wrong with those projects, they deserve to be made

And pretty much every black creator with few exceptions have to start this way. Ava and Ryan both had to start with projects that are traditionally white friendly (while also being great) to make their mark and then were allowed to move on to different types of projects

White people hold most of the power in media production. White people have ideas of what the representation should look like, and PoC often go along with it just to get their foot in the door. The farther back you go, the more power white people have. The “most of” in that sentence is the past ten-twenty years.

What that means is: the PoC involved in production often don’t have the ability to correct the project. If they do, great, support that thing (the only Native example that comes to mind is Teen Wolf’s skinwalker episode— please give any examples you know!). But if they don’t? Then they made a deal with the white devil to get their name established in the hopes of moving on to bigger things. Or to get money to support the tribe. Or both.

And anything made before Native Americans had the legal right to own their own tribal stories (aka when they didn’t have religious freedom) is guaranteed to have a giant power imbalance. If, by some miracle, the director was a saint-level good person who actually listened, then you might be in for finding-fairy-dust-level luck. But it’s like finding fairy dust. It would definitely not be the norm.

The only representation to be trusted is when the tribe owned the material. When it’s in their own words. The more white people existed as a filter, the less quality the story is, and the more it should be looked at with suspicion.

Unfortunately, that writes out a lot of media.

Take a dive through Littlefeather’s wikipedia page; a lot of the information there is on her legacy work, which includes some registries and databases of Native-produced stories that have a higher likelihood of being more accurate. But, again, see how modern tribe members feel about the projects, because it can be really hard to make a fully accurate story in the hostilities of the time.

~ Mod Lesya

Asks representation Native American media western writer resources

Chadwick Boseman Surprises Black Panther Fans While They Thank Him

Black Panther fans filmed a video message sharing what the movie means to them - what they didn’t know was that Chadwick Boseman was right behind the curtain, waiting to surprise them. click link to watch with subtitles.

Mod Colette: Check out this sweet six minute clip. Great perspectives and reactions here… and I only cried a wee bit! I really want to highlight one of the fan’s lovely words though regarding the movie and what it says for representation.

“Words can’t even describe what this movie has meant to be and other Black people. And I know this is for you, Chadwick, but I wanted to take a second to thank the Black women too because they were so strong on their own terms and answered to no one but themselves. I think it’s so important because they weren’t strong because they were angry, they weren’t strong because they were hurt; they were strong because they were strong. And that meant the world to me.“

representation representation matters Black panther movies media comics Black Black women Black men videos Strong Black Woman Stereotypes black stereotypes video
kingevangelista
takeafuckingsipgabe

Realizing it’s not romance that I hate but overdone straight relationships with zero chemistry built on a slew of misogynistic tropes was like a huge revelation for me

kaylapocalypse

I have a story about this.

My revelation regarding this was spurred by a little-known film that actually didn’t do very well in theatres at all, from the early 90s called Corina Corina.

Starring heartthrob of the time Ray Liotta, fresh off his Goodfellas fame and…..Whoopie Goldberg??? as his love interest??????

Bear with me here.

Corina Corina is the story about a man whose wife died, leaving him alone to parent his 8-9 year old daughter alone in what appears to be the late 50s-early 60s.   His daughter, Molly, is non-verbal due to the trauma of her mother’s death and is dealing with feelings of isolation as a result of her mourning process. Ray Liotta’s character makes a concentrated effort to be a good dad for her, but it’s real clear that both of them are still dealing with the death of his wife. Because Ray’s character works full time, he needs to find a nanny to watch his girl and pick her up from school. After a couple of terrible experiences (one with a hilarious appearance by Joan Cusack) he decides to hire Whoopie Goldberg.

Whoopie Goldberg’s character is a college educated black woman (in the 50s!!!!) who appears to be doing domestic work because its the only work white 50s America will hire her for. She and Ray’s daughter Molly get along well because she is the first person to take Molly’s decision to be non-verbal seriously and learn an alternate way to communicate with her.

Long story short, Whoopie Goldberg and Ray Liotta fall in love and live happily ever after. 

But, more importantly, the way the movie built their love changed the way I was able to process hetero couples on screen forever.

1. First, they were both provided with alternate romance options from the beginning of the movie. Ray was given an extremely attractive white lady love interest, and Whoopie was given an attractive and charming black man love interest. Both of them were given opportunities to return their affection but both pointedly chose not to.

2. They were attracted to each other based on common interest. They both liked the same music, they both bonded over their ability to play the piano, they both loved molly, they both helped encourage each other in their chosen fields (whoopie’s was english, and ray’s was being a songwriter), they both respected each other’s opinions and they both were honest with each other about the circumstances they were in.

3. They were realistic about the issue of a black woman being in a relationship with a white man in the era, and didn’t glide over racial identity issues. Ray made sure that his white neighbors knew that he loved her and didn’t care what they thought. He even explained to his mom that Molly emulating black culture wasn’t shameful and that she should mind her business about the way he felt about Whoopie Goldberg.

4. When Ray confessed his feelings, it was incredibly heartfelt and he was literally crying.

5. They didn’t pursue a romantic relationship until Whoopie wasn’t working for him anymore. And they didn’t gloss over the issue of power disparity in that equation. Ray doesn’t condescend to Whoopie at all through the movie, but once he’s aware he has feelings for her, his new goal is to let her know that he unquestionably considers her his equal both in private and in public And its clear that he’s aware that this is the first thing that must be settled before anything else. 

By the time you get to the end of the movie, the entire concept of Ray Liotta being with Whoopie Goldberg seems not only normal, but exceptionally romantic and you’re left wondering why you thought they would be a gross couple to begin with when they’re sO cLeArLy MaDe fOr eAcH oThEr

I now call this the Corina Corina standard. 

If a movie has a hetero couple and their relationship isn’t as fleshed out as Ray/Whoopie, I now have difficulty accepting whats occurring. 

The concept that two hot straight people who are vaguely near each other just doesn’t do it for me anymore after watching Ray Liotta walk through a black neighborhood in the 50s and knock on Whoopie’s door to beg her to come home to him.

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Oh so you say your characters are in love?

Prove it.

woodelf68

Reblogging for the review.

glam-alien

I love this movie

not to forget the intersection that Black women rarely get romance in media straight or no intersectionality media romance writing writer reference gifs
oedalis

hermestheghost asked:

I have a "Sidhe" setting in book 2 of my trilogy. The Sidhe are dark skinned, like midnight. My MC, Merlin, is half Sidhe and has skin of warm-gold-brown. But the Sidhe are my main antagonists. The story is v diverse otherwise, (1/2)

writingwithcolor answered:

but I’m worried about my antag. being dark skinned w my protagonist being lighter skinned (even if she is a pirate captain and no one in the story is morally great.) Do you have any suggestions for how to work this or if I need to change it? (2/2) 

Dark-Skinned Antagonist

It’s not really a problem if your main antagonist is dark skinned, but make sure it’s not a theme that all antagonists are dark skinned while the rest are a diverse range of skin colors. This gives the idea that antagonism/evil/villainy is linked to being dark. Another thing to make sure of is that you don’t make that link in another way, like through black/white symbolism or making the Sidhe inherently evil. 

~ Mod Alice

oedalis

I see this problem a lot with Dragons: Race to the Edge (the How to Train Your Dragon Netflix series). The main antagonists are all coded as people of color (with the exception of Dagur who is completely redeemed and becomes an ally), including the one in the second movie (and the one with the lightest skin color, Viggo, is the only one with redeeming qualities) and there are ZERO PoC among the Vikings or other good guys (even though Vikings were actually a very diverse people because they were well traveled and assimilated tribes they overtook). It’s an easy to fix and prey problematic thing, I wish they would do something about. It’s only been FIVE fucking seasons.

Commentary Colorism Media reblog