Unapologetically Me. @justagrlnyc - Tumblr Blog

Hello! I was reading through the notes on your post about Black Panther and I'm confused about some things. What's wrong with non-black POC aspiring to achieve the same representation that black folks got with Black Panther?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting representation. There’s also nothing wrong with demanding good representation for an underrepresented group of people.

The problem however, is that a lot of these discussions happen after Black people have made strides for themselves. I’m not sure if you were around during the #OscarsSoWhite controversy back in 2015/2016, but I certainly was. April Reign, a Black woman created the hashtag as a means of getting better representation for all marginalized groups (including Black people, NBPOC, LGBT, Women, differently-abled folk, etc) Now the people who spoke up the most during this were Black people (and that’s not to say there weren’t NBPOC’s. and other marginalized voices speaking up, but Black people got most of the attention (whether because we were louder, or because of hypervisibility or what have you) and Black people got most of the brunt and criticism. Saying that we’re “Just looking for things to be upset about” and “This doesn’t even really matter” and people were all up in Ms. Reign’s mentions with their racist shit.

Once the controversy hit the big stage, suddenly more and more NBPOC were beginning to speak up, but when they did, it was only to criticize Black people for not placing ALL POC’s in the limelight.

Look at the #NotYourMule tag on Twitter for more information (and there were plenty of think pieces on the hashtag as well).

It’s like, when Black people advocate for something we’re always “Complaining too much and that’s why we’re behind” but once our voices and issues come to the forefront of conversations, suddenly other groups demand that we “quiet down” so they can “speak” even though there’s nothing stopping them from advocating for their own issues.

like when MIA criticized Beyonce for not speaking about Muslim lives when she had the perfect opportunity to speak on those issues herself.

Or when Ming Na Wen only spoke up about #OscarsSoWhite when it was time to criticize Chris Rock (a Black man) for not being “inclusive enough”

Or when Gina Rodriguez kept opening her mouth to belittle Black women and the strides Black people have done in the entertainment industry (many of whom are/were Afro-Latinas)

Or when Aziz Ansari in that episode of Master of None pretty much threw shade a black people because “We have Beyonce and other Black people to advocate for our issues while Asians don’t”

Or when Salma Hayek spoke over Jessica Williams when she was trying to talk about her experiences being a Black woman.

Or every Black history month when I, and many other people I follow/know have to explain that 1. There are other months that celebrate the history of non-white people and 2: No, it’s not Black people’s fault that they may not get as much attention as BHM.

I remember when Aquaman was first making the rounds on the Twitter verse and there were plenty of people pretty much demanding that Black people show up for Aquaman the same way we did for Black Panther. There seems to be an undercurrent of entitlement to our labor, our voices, our movements, and everything else we do.

And these are just a few examples. They only ever seem to find their voices when Black people are making headway for out own issues (and again, that’s not to say ALL NBPOC do this, but enough do that it is a sticking point for a lot of Black people.)

I’ll even give you another example. I’m a gay man, and in the 2000′s the biggest phrase for the LGBT movement was “Gay is the New Black” as if Black people had “had their turn” and needed to step aside and let “The New Minority” take the spotlight. And what that did was not only appropriate Black Civil Rights iconography, but also erased Black Queers (like myself) and made it seem like we didn’t deal with both antiblack racism and homophobia at the same time. People are more than happy to take our history and our iconography to make strides for themselves, while also erasing and ignoring Black people they come in contact with. Why?

I’m all for solidarity. I’m all for working together so that everyone can have a voice and good representation, but I am not here for other groups trying to make Black people feel guilty for trying and making strides for our community.

And Crazy Rich Asians, Aquaman and Coco all did very well in the Box Office, and yet I don’t see any think pieces demanding that we have a “Mexican Aquaman” or a “Polynesian Crazy Rich Asians” or an “Asian Coco”. And why should we? Each of those films were beautiful in how they portrayed their varying cultures and no one is saying “We need a Non-Asian/Non-Mexican/Non-Polynesian” version of these narratives, but for some reason that’s what everyone seems to say whenever we get a Black film.

Yes, I want inclusion and diversity in all facets of our entertainment but I’m sick of being made to feel guilty about taking pride in seeing how wonderful and beautiful Black people can be and are.

rapeculturerealities

invalid-username-again-deactiva

heyisfur-at-gmail-dot-com-deact

Y’all will NOT

ororomunroedontpullout

No cat ever called me a nigger :///

mangopapi-deactivated20210928

Bruh

tsunamiwavesurfing

no offense but the way white women finessed their way in regards to distancing themselves from white men in public perception while eating from the same plate is wild. waking up to tweets from white women telling me that “women are the niggers of the world” is a twilight zone like experience

mangopapi-deactivated20210928

Until majority of white women stop voting for these people we will never have change. And yes gillum lost in Florida by not even 1 percent that 51% matters cause it’s still in the majority.

kimreesesdaughter

Black people ARE social media. We make everything pop. We are VINE, we are Instagram, we are Twitter. We are media and marketing. We are trends and hashtags (both ways). The one thing we are not is credited. We molded social media and all they ever call us is ghetto.

kidkendoll-deactivated20240714

White women voting

africanaquarian

why are college professors held in higher esteem than other teachers? like it doesn’t make sense to me that two people with the same master’s degree required to teach a subject, doing the same thing can have a 40k+ wage gap between them

justagrlnyc

In most fields you need a PhD to be a professor vs. a masters degree to teach K-12. Additionally, college professors are specialized in their area of teaching while K-12 teachers are not. There are more responsibilities for a colle professor vs. K-12 teacher etc

07heart

to love—platonically, romantically, unconditionally—is to live. remember this when you want to close your heart to others.

ruinedchildhood

ME ON SEPTEMBER 30TH VS ME ON OCTOBER 1ST

bbyygiiirll

do u ever just look at someone & think about how bomb the sex would be

chrissongzzz

“I just want to tell you guys: She played well and this is her first Grand Slam.” Serena Williams defended Naomi Osaka, the first Japanese woman to win a Grand Slam singles event, after a controversial game penalty at the U.S. Open.

thatsoundsfakebutkk

Yall really fake for not letting everyone know shes Haitian AND Japanese…

blackrebelz-deactivated20240608

Naomi Osaka and her sister Mari both play professional tennis. They embrace the Haitian part of their heritage and it is important that we do not allow their blackness to be erased by the media.

afromisandry

IF I SEE ONE MORE GODDAMN ASIAN PERSON COMPARE BLACK PANTHER TO CRAZY RICH ASIANS I’M GONNA LOSE MY FUCKING MIND.

WE ARE NOT YOUR FUCKING PROMO PACK MULES. It isn’t black people’s jobs to promote Crazy Rich Asians especially considering the black caricaturist that is awkwafina. Like it is not black people that have been standing in the way of Asian representation.

Talk to white people. Tell the to hype it like they did Wonder Woman or Lala Land or any other mediocre white movie that blew up in popularity. Keep black people out your fucking mouth.

playfulpanthress

What the fuck is wrong with you??

Asians helped Black Panther gross as much as it did. It wasn’t just us, you moron. In fact, majority of the box office came from nonblacks so what’s your problem???

I’m so sick of pathetic pieces of shit like you dragging us down because we are not like you. I loved Crazy Rich Asians. I’ve seen it three times. Pull that colossal stick out of your ass, you might enjoy the movie. There are a lot of similarities between our people.

And if you didn’t have that Klan hood on, you could see it.

africanaquarian