it matters

a safe space about pocs representation in the media, especially in television and films.

[superheroesincolor]

New Australian Science Fiction series Cleverman.

“Set in the near future, Cleverman is a startlingly original drama rooted in Aboriginal mythology. The series depicts a deeply conflicted and anxious society, fearful of a minority group, endowed with extraordinary physical traits, living among them. One young man – The Cleverman – struggles with his own power and the responsibility to unite this divided world, but he must first overcome a deep estrangement with his older brother.”

“I have a huge love of superheroes and comics. It got me thinking about creating something cultural that my young son could connect to on a superhero basis,” said Ryan Griffen, Concept Originator. “I wanted to bring something Aboriginal, Indigenous, to that world. As the son of a light-skinned Aboriginal man and a light-skinned Aboriginal woman, it was important for me that my son had a cultural superhero that he could look up to as a young Aboriginal person… something he could connect to that was also entertaining.”

Directed by Wayne Blair and Leah Purcell who are both Indigenous Australians; will be screening on the ABC in mid-2016 (and in the US on Sundance), the exhilarating, dystopic TV series crafts an X-Men-like fantasy world grounded in Australian Indigenous peoples’ history and mythology. It also stars an 80 percent Indigenous cast.  

via ABC TV

[ Follow SuperheroesInColor on facebook / instagram / twitter / tumblr ]   

[2brwngrls]

YES

FUCK

YES

[micdotcom]

 Almost a year after her daughter died in custody, Sandra Bland’s mother Geneva Reed-Veal has a message for activists.

[owning-my-truth-deactivated2022]

Beyoncé’s “Love Drought” Video, Slavery and the Story of Igbo Landing

[image description: Beyoncé in the music video for “Love Drought” marching into the water followed by a procession of black women]

Beyoncé’s LEMONADE is filled with incredible artistry and stunning imagery. One of the most striking images for me on the visual album, though, occurs in the video for “Love Drought”. Much has been said about how LEMONADE draws influence from Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, but less has been said in these same conversations about how the story of Igbo Landing is central to Daughters of the Dust and how the story of Igbo Landing- an act of mass resistance against slavery-also shows up in a really pronounced manner in the “Love Drought” Video.

[Image description: Donovan Nelson’s artistic depiction of Igbo Landing in charcoal. It shows the Igbo slaves marching into a body of water with the water already up to their necks and their eyes closed. Image via Valentine Museum of Art]

For those who don’t know, Igbo Landing is the location of a mass suicide of Igbo slaves that occurred in 1803 on St. Simons Island, Georgia. As the story goes, a group of Igbo slaves revolted and took control of their slave ship, grounded it on an island, and rather than submit to slavery, proceeded to march into the water while singing in Igbo, drowning themselves in turn. They all chose death over slavery. It was an act of mass resistance against the horrors of slavery and became a legend, particularly amongst the Gullah people living near the site of Igbo Landing. 

Not only is the story of Igbo Landing one of the key themes of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, which influenced LEMONADE, but its imagery also appears to be central to the “Love Drought” video. In the video, Beyoncé marches into the water followed by a group of black women all in white with black fabric in the shape of a cross across the front of their bodies. They march progressively deeper into the water before pausing and raising all of their hands toward the sunset.

[Image description: Beyoncé marching into a large body of water by a beach followed by other black women]

This scene and the video as a whole also occurs in a marshy, swampy landscape, matching African-American folklore descriptions of the location of Igbo Landing. In addition, this is all mixed in with imagery of Beyoncé physically bound in ropes and resisting their pull, which directly evokes slavery, resistance and the events at Igbo Landing for me.

[Image description: Beyoncé on a beach leaning backward as she appears to be resisting the pull of a taught rope]

Lastly, I would like to note how Beyoncé and the group of black women she is with very deliberately rose their hands while in the water toward the sunset. For me this recalled how the act of mass resistance at Igbo Landing was mythologized in many African-American communities as either the myth of the “water walking” or “flying” Africans. In the latter legend, the Igbo slaves walked into the water and then flew back to Africa, saving themselves in turn. 

Below is the myth of the “flying Africans” at Igbo Landing as told by Wallace Quarterman, an African-American man born in 1844 who was interviewed by members of the Federal Writers Project in 1930 (via wiki):

Ain’t you heard about them? Well, at that time Mr. Blue he was the overseer and … Mr. Blue he go down one morning with a long whip for to whip them good… . Anyway, he whipped them good and they got together and stuck that hoe in the field and then … rose up in the sky and turned themselves into buzzards and flew right back to Africa… . Everybody knows about them.

[Image description: Beyoncé and several black women partially submerged in water by a beach and raising their arms toward the setting sun]

Seeing Beyoncé and a group of black women marching into the water and raising their hands collectively toward the sunset reminded me specifically of this last interpretation of the story of Igbo Landing where the slaves flew to their freedom.

There are lots of potential interpretations for this video and the visual album as a whole but the core imagery of the “Love Drought” video - marshy landscape matching folklore descriptions of the location of “Igbo Landing,” images of Beyoncé bound in ropes and resisting their pull, a collective march into the water and holding their hands out toward the sky as if they were about to fly away together-basically screamed out to me as the story of Igbo Landing as I watched the video. It’s such a powerful act of mass resistance against slavery and as an Igbo person living today in America, it was moving to see imagery which reminded me strongly of it in LEMONADE as well.

Learn more about the story of Igbo Landing: Here

[buzzfeedreader]

When Beyoncé dropped Lemonade, the gorgeous visual album, the world stopped. The project draws heavily on themes of betrayal, forgiveness, growth, and community. With poetry from Somali-British writer Warsan Shire, traditional Yoruba body paint by Brooklyn-based Nigerian artist Laolu Senbanjo, and an undeniably Southern Gothic setting, the work is an impressively rich reflection of the African diaspora.

But at its core, Lemonade is a deeply vulnerable project that speaks directly to, for, and with black women in particular. Below are some of the best pieces written by black women, joining Beyoncé in the conversation she invited us into–scarf tied, edges laid, and lemonade stirred.

1. Clover Hope, “Lemonade Is Beyoncé’s Body and Blood,” Jezebel

HBO / Via themuse.jezebel.com

“Topically, whether this is about Jay Z or Mathew Knowles (whose unfaithfulness to Beyoncé’s mother Tina produced a baby) or curated fiction, using cheating as a narrative thread for an album about black female solidarity is daring and damn near perfect. Lies are what links us anyway. The absence of trust. Who are we to believe in if it can’t be our fathers, partners or the country that claims we’re free? The answer is our sisters.”

2. Brittany Spanos, “How Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ Reclaims Rock’s Black Female Legacy,” Rolling Stone

“‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’ is only the latest chapter in a rich historical narrative. Since the Fifties and Sixties, black female singers have covered white rock artists and vice versa, though the former have often seen bigger success with their versions. Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog” and “Ball and Chain” are more inextricably linked to Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin, respectively. Tina Turner reversed the tide when the Ike and Tina Turner Revue’s cover of the Beatles’ “Come Together” – performed while opening for the Rolling Stones in 1969 – helped them achieve their breakthrough after struggling with being referred to as “too pop” by soul stations and “too R&B” by white stations. Later, their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” became the Revue’s biggest hit and flipped the standard narrative of white rock artists appropriating black music.”

3. Doreen St. Félix, “A Love Profane,” MTV News

“But the trauma of infidelity is about much more than matters of adulterous fucking in Lemonade. Black women in America are cheated out of spiritual and material things. ‘The most disrespected person in America is the black woman,’ Malcolm X says, toward the middle of the film. Was he talking about structural injustice there, or about interpersonal love? Lemonade confirms they are inseparable, and it is a relief.”

4. Melissa Harris-Perry, “A Call and Response with Melissa Harris-Perry: The Pain and the Power of ‘Lemonade’,” Elle

HBO / Via elle.com

“Lemonade disrupted our inner ear, throwing us off balance as we confronted the breadth of all we have missed, ignored, and submerged by pushing black womanhood, even our own, to the margins. As a black feminist scholar I have been thinking, teaching, and writing about the intersections of race and gender for two decades, but the sheer force of Lemonade’s visual and sonic artistry is still unfamiliar terrain.”

5. Amani Bin Shikhan, “‘Lemonade,’ Love, And Being A Black Girl Who Becomes A Black Woman,” NOISEY

“They say that black women are nurturers, but they don’t say that black daughters are too. Learning from birth to sit straight, clean the tables, come to the defense of our hotheaded brothers and stubborn fathers, our neglectful lovers. Black daughters who rush to act as their mother’s crutch, the one to make her facial muscles tense and reveal all of her teeth, her deep belly laugh a satisfaction in its own right. We run to the bathroom with our mother’s lipstick. We watch as she ties her satin scarf, or her hijab, or fingers the last ends of a braid. How do we grow and become new women, ridden of our inhibitions, of the voice in our heads that refuse to let us free? We fast, we abstain, we pray. We return to our bodies, anew.”

6. Dominique Matti, “Why Lemonade Is For Black Women,” Medium

“With Lemonade, Beyoncé broke the first rule of being a Black woman. She did not protect the Black men who failed to protect her. She did not prioritize a Black man’s pain over her own. She said: my pain demands acknowledgement. She said: You must be held accountable. She said: I am more than enough — why do you deny yourself heaven? She said: I do not exist to be your collateral damage — fix you, and fix the damage you’ve done.”

7. Ashleigh Shackelford, “Bittersweet Like Me: When the Lemonade Ain’t Made For Fat Black Women & Femmes,” Wear Your Voice

“Southern Blackness is inextricably linked to bigger Black femmes’ and women’s bodies. Our bodies symbolize the birthright of Black struggle while also representing the lineage to white plantation/white supremacist functionality. The rich history of the Deep South and the violence around troping, codifying and oppressing Black women and femmes is centered on mammification, sexual violence excused through hypersexual mythologies, denial of beauty, animalizing our humanity and utilizing our bodies as a literal and symbolic vessel for the continuation of slavery and subordination.”

8. Ijeoma Oluo, “Beyoncé’s Lemonade is about much more than infidelity and Jay Z”, The Guardian

Parkwood Entertainment / Via theguardian.com

“We are the women left behind. We are the women who have cared for other women’s children while ours were taken away. We are the women who work two jobs when companies won’t hire our men. We are the women caring for grandchildren as our sons are taken by the prison industrial complex. We are the women who march in the streets and are never marched for. We are the women expected to never air our grievances in public. We are the women expected to stay loyal to our men by staying silent through abuse and infidelity. We are the women who clean the blood of our men and boys from the streets. We are the women who gather their belongings from the police station.”

9. Diamond Sharp, “Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ Is an Anthem for the Retribution of Black Women,” VICE

“The Black Future and the stars that represent it, notably Stenberg and Zendaya, have been diligent about not separating their politics from their public personas. Likewise Lemonade’s narrative deliberately blurs the lines between the personal and the political. Beyoncé has been clear about her support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and it’s not surprising that the mothers of Eric Garner, Mike Brown, and Trayvon Martin, all victims of police or policing-related violence, are featured. As Beyoncé notes in “Intuition,” ‘The past and the future merge to meet us here.’”

10. Amanda Parris, “Eight black Canadian women dissect Beyoncé’s Lemonade,” CBC

“The interweaving of [poet Warsan Shire] and Bey’s prose says so much of what we as black girls and women have always known, ‘that we are terrifying, strange and beautiful, something not everyone knows how to love.’ That sexism is much deeper, it doesn’t matter whether you are Beyonce or Rihanna, none of us are exempt from a racialized sexism that breaks bones and hearts. For me it felt less about the cheating, but more about the betrayal, and knowing that I share this connection forged across the diaspora, a call and response around a kind of sadness that we as black women bear.” — Kim Katrin Milan

11. Judnick Mayard, “Beyoncé Brings Wonderful Witchcraft, Healing Powers in ‘Lemonade’,” Billboard

“In fairytales, women often visit a witch during a time of intense grief following unexpected loss (see Disney staples Snow White, The Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty). The witch’s job becomes immediately alleviating that pain while warning there’s no easy fix. In Lemonade, Beyoncé insists we mourn. Haunting images permeate the visual album. The funeral processions and second line parades, the dancing on the coffin, the burning houses, ghost women painted white. (Nigerian-bred, Brooklyn-based artist Laolu Senbanjo helmed the body art, which derive from a spiritual ritual in worship of orishas, the gods in Yoruba religion.) Beyoncé resorts to these time-old symbols that black women have used to heal, stretching across West Africa, the Bayou and the Caribbean.”

12. Sajae Elder, “When Life Gives You Lemons: A Thematic Breakdown of Beyoncé’s Surprise Album ‘Lemonade’,” NOISEY

HBO / Via noisey.vice.com

“Beyoncé finally emerges from the building, water cascading down the steps behind her before leading into the Diplo-produced, reggae-tinged “Hold Up.” This is also the point where voodoo and West African-based religious imagery starts to become apparent throughout, as a handful of in-the-know viewers pointed out and offered context for. The imagery, which sees Beyonce in a yellow dress, is reminiscent of Oshun, a badass goddess who wears yellow, governs over love and sexuality and laughs when exacting revenge.”

13. Jamelia, “Piers Morgan, you don’t like Beyonce in ‘Lemonade’ because her blackness isn’t white enough for you any more,” The Independent

“You are a middle aged, British white man. You have no idea, I repeat: NO IDEA what it is like to be a black woman, and furthermore the sacrificial, struggle-filled, tongue-biting, mask-wearing fight it is to become a successful one.

Let me break this down for you: Beyoncé’s album is not an attack on anyone; it is a celebration of the strength, endurance and potential within black womanhood. The fact that you are mad/uncomfortable/agitated about it is evidence enough of how blind you are to the realities of being one.”

14. Nichole Perkins, “What to read after watching Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’,” Fusion

“Much of the lyrics of “Lemonade” focus on the consequences of infidelity, and we see Beyoncé cycle through the pain of dealing with a cheating husband. We also see the grieving mothers of black boys and men killed unjustly. Because “Lemonade” touches on the actions of men and honors the mourning of men, it’s easy to reduce the film to the idea that everything revolves around them. On the contrary, “Lemonade” gives proof to Anna Julia Cooper’s words: “Only the BLACK WOMAN can say ‘when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.‘” “Lemonade” is not simply another “he done me wrong” album or video. The relationship at the heart of the lyrics is a Trojan horse, opening to the shores of black womanhood as healing and salvation.”

For further reading:

Eva’s Man by Gayl Jones

The Way Forward Is With a Broken Heart by Alice Walker

Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime by J. California Cooper

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston”

[jane-the-virgin]

‘Jane the Virgin’ Narrator on His Role and His Emmy Nomination

Mr. Mendez, who as the Latin lover narrator received the show’s sole Emmy nomination, talks about his voice-over career.

[fyeahlilbit3point0-blog]

Hollywood seems untroubled by these arguments. It’s not about race, they say; the only color they see is green: The reason Asian-American actors are not cast to front these films is because not any of them have a box office track record. But they’re wrong. If minorities are box office risks, what accounts for the success of the “Fast and Furious” franchise, which presented a broadly diverse team, behind and in front of the camera? Over seven movies it has grossed nearly $4 billion worldwide. In fact, a recent study by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that films with diverse leads not only resulted in higher box office numbers but also higher returns of investment for studios and producers. And Hollywood’s argument is circular: If Asian-Americans — and other minority actors more broadly — are not even allowed to be in a movie, how can they build the necessary box office clout in the first place? To make matters worse, instead of trying to use their lofty positions in the industry to push for change, Hollywood players like Mr. Landis and Mr. Sorkin take the easy, cynical path. ven a modest hit like the “Harold and Kumar” trilogy, starring John Cho and Kal Penn, was able to quadruple its production budget after box office and home media sales. Meanwhile, films with white stars fail at the box office all the time. Chris Hemsworth, who stars in this weekend’s “Huntsman” sequel, has had many more box office flops than successes, yet he is considered a bankable movie star. Such facts reveal Hollywood’s dirty little secret. Economics has nothing to do with racist casting policies. Films in which the leads have been whitewashed have all failed mightily at the box office. Inserting white leads had no demonstrable effect on the numbers. So why is that still conventional thinking in Hollywood? For years, audiences have essentially boycotted these films, yet studios keep making them. Let’s hope Hollywood eventually listens.

Keith Chow, “Why Won’t Hollywood Cast Asian Actors?” (via fyeahlilbit3point0)

[dailytwdcast]

Danai Gurira’s play Eclipsed is nominated for 6 Tony Awards

Danai is nominated in the category Best Play

Best Play Author Danai Gurira

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play  Lupita Nyong'o

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play   Pascale Armand

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play   Saycon Sengbloh

Best Costume Design of a Play   Clint Ramos

Best Direction of a Play   Liesl Tommy

[leiasalonga]

Hold your head up high, Gaman

[portlybibliophile]

#the fact that allegiance #a musical conceived by a survivor of Japanese Internment camps #featuring some of the greatest performers alive today #did not receive one goddamn Tony nomination #is a fucking disgrace #especially between in the season between the King and I and MISS SAIGON revivals #Broadway has and has had a serious anti-Asian problem and it is and always has been unacceptable #I’m way out of my lane here but for some reason was having trouble finding stuff in the tags #i’’m sure its out there tumblrs not being cooperative tho #and i didn’t want to go to bed without publicly acknowledging this

Gonna give you the rubber stamp of Angry Asian Approval here, as I’m super peeved too. 

[pocrepresentation]

Race and Romance in Daredevil Season Two - Women Write About Comics

Netflix’s Daredevil is, on the surface, a pretty progressive show when it comes to romance: Matt Murdock is romantically linked to two women of color, Claire Temple and Elektra Natchios, during the course of two seasons, which is definitely more than can be said about any of the MCU films so far. But a deeper read showsRead More

As someone who absolutely adores Claire, and enjoyed Elektra, this article is worth a read.

[southernwomanist]

So I actually read this yesterday and was disappointed at how much of it is a misreading of the narrative and dynamics on the show.  

“The narrative is clear: Matt wants so badly to be worthy of Karen”

No actually, the narrative doesn’t make that clear at all. In fact, Matt spends the majority of the season ignoring Karen, prioritizing Elektra, professing his love to her, asking her to be with him, etc. There is hardly any emphasis on Matt and Karen’s relationship, certainly not on Matt wanting to be worthy of her. And while the author makes a good point on how Matt/Karen are positioned as the “ideal” relationship, the writers never really bother to explore that angle. All the depth and attention is given to Matt/Elektra. She’s the woman who he’s most vulnerable with, who’s written as the one person who knows him, completes him, whom he doesn’t want to live without. 

I could go on, because there is a lot more in the article I disagree with but I don’t really have the time and I hate writing. :P Just wanted to point out how it’s not the best analysis on this particular topic, I don’t think. 

[pocrepresentation]

So, I disagreed with certain things in the article, but I would say that the overall message and things touched upon in the article are valid. No one is holding it up as premier end all, be all criticism of the show, Matt’s relationship with Karen is clearly contrasted with his relationship with Elektra. Maybe he’s not straining to be worthy of Karen, but she represents his non-Daredevil side, without the violent urges, and the secrecy, etc. Elektra is posited as an unstable person who’s literally driven by bloodlust, and is supposed bring out his more negative self, because she mirrors it and amplifies it. I like Elektra, but I’m not gonna say that I don’t have a problem with the way they wrote her.

The writers didn’t expand on his relationship with Karen, but they didn’t portray his relationship with Elektra as positive. They made her out to be a destructive force. They made her out to be someone who needs to be redeemed by him.

You can dig them as much as want, and you can disagree with certain points (as i do), but it’s a lot to act as though the writers were concerned about providing depth, and as though the show exists in a vacuum, completely unaffected by real life circumstances and opinions.

[dailyemeraudetoubia]

how to avoid whitewashing a poc tutorial

hi guys! so lately at dailyemeraudetoubia we’ve been seeing a lot of whitewashing emeraude and poc in general on our dash so we’d thought we’d make everyone aware by making a tutorial on how to make a nice coloring WITHOUT WHITEWASHING

THIS IS NOT OKAY

YESSS!! A NICE GIF OF A WOC

Keep reading

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

'Wake Up You!' Explores The Transitional, Post-War Rock 'N' Roll Of Nigeria

If you came of age in the 1960s, chances are you think about rock ‘n’ roll as the music of youth, of rebellion, of fighting the establishment. But in Nigeria, which was in the middle of a civil war, rock was one of the ways in which people expressed their politics.

You might have heard about activist artists like Fela Kuti, who rebuked abusive government practices through song. But what you might not know is that the warring governments also understood the power of rock.

Some military administrators went so far as to conscript popular rock bands — both to keep up their soldiers’ morale and to pacify the angry civilians.

That fascinating history is the subject of a new book series called Wake Up You! The Rise and Fall of Nigerian Rock, 1972-1977 by music producer and historian Uchenna Ikonne. [Read More]

[refinery29]

Dipa Karmakar is the first Indian woman to qualify for the Olympics in gymnastics

Karmakar is also the first Indian gymnast of any gender to qualify for the Olympics in 52 years. And she did it with a move so intense she literally risks her life every time she lands it.

Gifs: BBC News

[wocinsolidarity]

I’m stanning

[thechanelmuse]

Artist Paints the Universe and Nature into Black Women’s Hair

Pierre Jean-Louis is a multimedia artist based in New York and Philadelphia, who has built up quite a social media following as a result of his unique works. Jean-Louis paints mystical images of the universe and nature onto images of Black women’s natural hair. His intricate works feature flowers, vines, and even an entire forest, all seamlessly woven into coils and kinks. Jean-Louis even invites his followers to tag him in their photos on Instagram so that he can consider their portraits as well.

[tonisingerloverfriend]

YES YES YES YAAAASSSS

[writingwithcolor]

Advice on pan-Asian themes/countries

We continue to receive asks/submissions that ask the same basic question: Can I have/create a pan-Asian country in my work? (We get this question at least two times a week, no joke!)

And the answer is: Our recommendation is that you don’t create pan-Asian anything in your works. So, no. Don’t. Please don’t. Just don’t.

But since we keep getting questions about it, we thought we’d specifically address why pan-Asian themes/cultures/countries are problematic.

GENERIC ASIAN CULTURE DOESN’T EXIST There’s an assumption that there is a generic “Asian culture” that exists. It doesn’t. It goes along with this racist idea that Asians look the same. White supremacy often takes the tack of looking at Asians as robots, and you see see this mentality continually espoused in articles about the education systems in East Asia, or the factories in China and India, or the idea that Asians “naturally” gravitate towards mathematics and engineering. These are lies. The emasculation of the Asian man and the hypersexualization of the Asian woman also treats us all like robots or dolls instead of human beings.

The continent of Asia is gigantic. It boasts the greatest population in the world. It’s huge and it’s extremely diverse. Its diaspora is also extremely diverse.

India’s population alone is over 1 billion. There are at least 17 languages spoken there and over 900 dialects. It’s the birthplace of four major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. India has more than 2000 ethnic groups and EVERY major world religion is represented there. It’s one of the most diverse countries in the world.

Even trying to define a generic “Indian” culture (both in India and among its diaspora) is very difficult to do! So it simply isn’t possible to have a generic “Asian culture” when it’s nigh impossible to do that for ONE country in Asia. India is not a monolith. Indian diaspora is not a monolith. Asia is also not a monolith. “Asian culture” doesn’t exist. When people write pan-Asian themes/countries/cultures into their works, they’re propagating this myth.

HISTORY AND CONTEXT MATTER This doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of cultural similarity between certain regions in Asia or that there’s never any cultural sharing or melding. If two countries are located close to each other geographically, there’s a good chance that some ideas and traditions have made their way across both countries. This is the same all over the world.

But sometimes, this sharing of culture is not mutual. Asia is no stranger to forced assimilation, colonization, imperialism, genocide, war, and the oppression of native and indigenous peoples.

Pan-Asian works ignore this historical context. They give no regard to the atrocities that have taken place and often align themselves with imperialism. In fact, pan-Asianism (that is, the unification of Asia) was often used in Japanese imperialist propaganda, which sought to unite Asia under Japanese supremacy.*

Also, many traditions, religions and cultural practices have origins in the geography, climate, and ecosystems surrounding the people groups in question. By using only some aspects and not others, you run the risk of eliminating the very reasons why certain cultural traditions might have come to be.

BUT WHAT ABOUT SFF OR ALTERNATE HISTORY? Again, even if your novel involves distant planets “inspired” by currently existing countries or an alternate history, we strongly advise against pan-Asian countries or cultures. If it isn’t possible for many currently existing countries in Asia to have a single homogenous culture, then how is it realistic for the countries in your work to have pan-Asian cultures or themes?

People are often proud of their cultural traditions and history, including things like traditional dress, architecture, religions, and customs. If you are not Asian, then it isn’t your place to separate people groups from their countries and cultural traditions for your artistic work. Asia is not your playground. 

FURTHER RESOURCES

Here’s a submission we had from a reader on why pan-Asian themes are harmful: Representation in Avatar the Last Airbender.

Here’s a link to our cultural appropriation tag.

*Please do not ever use Japanese imperialism as an excuse for why white supremacy “isn’t so bad” or “White supremacists aren’t the only racist ones!” Yes, there have been multiple people groups in history, on every continent, that have done atrocious things. None of it justifies or excuses current white supremacy. That’s false equivalence, and we do not play that game here at WWC. 

Here’s a post I wrote (from ThisIsNotJapan) about this very issue.

[wondersmith-and-sons]

[susurrations]

#i don’t think i can put into words just how pivotal this moment is #because for so long we’ve been presented this female Chinese-American Watson and decided not to question it #“why is her last name Watson? because her father’s white; let’s move on” #“watson doesn’t have to be a white male; here’s proof of that!” #and that’s a perfectly fine way to engage a text #but suddenly we have this; something that engages in the complexity and cultural baggage behind that kind of name; that kind of title; #the cultural heritage and the politics of otherness vs assimilation that an immigrant’s name bears #that’s *huge* in terms of the meta-narrative and how to interpret a text because so many Holmes adaptations are just different variations #of the same song #Joan Watson was not born a Watson; she stepped into the name #it doesn’t just challenge and update the Holmes mythos but actively interrogates it #by asking it why this narrative is a) so exclusionary and b) so stifling in its interpretations #that’s extremely meaningful in terms of how we engage with cultural symbols and a franchise as symbollic as the Holmes mythos #anyway: i’m emotional/screaming/dying my skin is clear etc etc (tags via @stardust-rain)

[gentlefeline-deactivated2017012]

Nina Simone & Me with Laura Mvula

British soul singer Laura Mvula explores the musical roots of the legendary Nina Simone.

this is really good!! :)

[kerleaaa]

Film. 10 Coming-of-Age Stories Created by Black Women.

While representation is important, the creators of that representation are equally important. The release and subsequent critiques of the black, French coming-of-age film "Girlhood" has spurred a l...

In case any of you wanted some movie ideas

[supportnotlflcatlon]

I see you reesh! 😘