SkritzMuffin @skritzmuffin - Tumblr Blog

Just sharing positive news of how I experienced actual solidarity and allyship as Black person from non Black people. I work at a school as a sub sometimes and it's in an underprivileged Latino community that was recently terrorized by ICE. I'm one of the few Black subs in the school. One of the students (non Black) called me the N word in front of the other students who were shocked. Due to my training I reported it and the staff were so supportive. The principal gave me a hug, the teachers checked up on me periodically, the vice principal immediately removed the student and called the parents. Even the other students were apologetic and didn't want to associate with the student that said the slur. It was instantaneous how they comforted me and made sure if I wanted to, I could request not to sub for any of that student's classes as they don't tolerate racism and want everyone to feel safe in the safe zone of school. I was told also that they gave the student a history lesson of that word and why it was very inappropriate for the student to say that and that they're going to do follow-ups on why the student felt it was okay to say that to me and what's going on at home for him to have these views.

Since I'm a sub and all for education, I treat every moment as teachable during these trying times. For a lot of these kids, I'm their 1st contact ever with a Black person that isn't a streamer/youtuber/music artist they love to follow. This bunch I've taught so far have no idea what the hairstyle twists are, they only know braids/locs/and afros and it was fun exchanging cultures in between lessons. Anyway, I wanted to share how non Black people can hold each other accountable when seeing anti Black particular racism in their community. Strangely, subbing for this school healed a lot of work trauma racism where HR was useless.

I'm glad that they were willing to discuss with the kid why what he did was wrong, so hopefully he doesn't do it again. While I do think there should be a consequence, I always get worried about adults utilizing power over Black and Brown students. I am glad that they surrounded you with support! That is like... Rare, fr, that they actually handled this situation properly.

24x81

what some of y'all consider good fic and make popular is kinda concerning ngl

24x81

call me a bitch and pretentious and a wet blanket but for gods sake some of y'all need to read some good books and watch better movies/tv shows. just because it's in the written word doesn't mean it's not rotting your brain. some of this stuff isn't even junk food. it's just shit. taste is subjective but there is a certain threshold reached when objectively the art is bad.

darlingofdots

I hope it's okay for me to add my thoughts to this!

For a while now I have observed that a lot of people, even people who read a lot, struggle to talk about what they read on anything except the content level. This includes students in my undergraduate lit studies classes! They can tell me what happens in a story and maybe how it made them feel, but if I ask them why they feel a certain way, they can't point to it. It blows their minds when I go through a couple of examples of how words make you feel things (like the difference between "red drops" and "crimson spatters"). They are not paying attention to conventions or formats or narrative techniques and they struggle to comprehend the function of those things.

The extension of this is that most people don't know what "good writing" is. They just don't. This has always been the case to some degree because most people only care about whether or not they like a book they're reading, although of course "good writing" usually makes a book more enjoyable to read. But it also appears that a lot of people "read" without really taking in or paying attention to the actual words on the page beyond what they need to imagine the scenes. This is why some of the most popular/successful published writers out there have incredibly dull prose: people prefer straightforward writing that doesn't distract or confuse you with complexity of language.

The unfortunate consequence of the increasing literacy crisis is that the standards for what is considered "enjoyable" keeps dropping. Readers have lower standards for what they will rate 5 stars on Goodreads and that's all publishers care about, so they can get away with putting less effort into their output, so the overall quality keeps dropping too.

There's this idea in literary studies called "the affect" which bluntly put just refers to the physical and emotional reaction like when you watch a scary movie and your body reacts as if you really are being hunted by an axe murderer. The affect is a huge factor for why most people engage with media: they want to feel something and the more intense the feeling, the better. The thing is that the human mind and body are not that complicated and the buttons to make you feel Sad or Happy or Horny are very big and easily pushed, which is why there are cute puppies in commercials and why some writers try to make every single sentence some kind of climax. Increasingly, people appear to mean "it made me feel things" when they say "it's so well-written."

So the best way to make people respond positively to your writing is to make them Feel Things and you don't need to be subtle or clever about it. In fact, it's better if you aren't. If you can make them Feel Things strongly and also repeatedly, even better. In a fanfiction context, that means readers as a demographic prefer frequent updates with a high density of humour, sex, or intense emotional scenes and they don't really know whether it's well-written or not.

And fanfiction doesn't need to be "well-written", that's not the point. We were all shitty writers once and there's no test you have to pass to write fic. I do think there have been some shifts in how people engage with fanfiction as readers that exacerbate individual works getting so much attention as well. My personal takeaway from the Claude-fragment situation is less "wow, people have shit taste" (because this has always been true, the art that appeals to the most people cannot be the most complex or nuanced because then fewer people would like it) and more "this is a direct result of the lack of reading skills and push towards instant gratification we have been observing for years because people are losing the ability to be discerning about what they enjoy"

vouwlgs

my collection grows 😇

syn4k

a humble addition

kirbyofthestars

> “mannish features”

> look inside

> literally just common physical traits among women of colour

kirbyofthestars

you can’t separate transmisogyny from racism. the radical feminism movement is so overwhelmingly white because their idea of what a woman is is so thoroughly steeped in white supremacy.

isuggestrespecttranspeople

You can’t separate transmisogyny from racism. Very important to remember

catsdelightful-deactivated20240

Hey artists, C. Spike Trotman, founder of Iron Circus Comics, just posted an invaluable thread on depicting different types of black hair. I’d do the thing where you screencap the whole thread and post it but it’s just too long (which is great because it’s a whole lot of useful information!) Give her a follow while you’re there.

Anyway, go check it out. I just wanted to save it and share it because I didn’t know how much I didn’t know!

misslunarose

This is an amazing resource, not only for artists, but for writers too! I love this!

{ID - tweet from @/Iron_Spike that reads, “Black Hair for Non-Black Artists: a Cheat Sheet Thread. Hi, folks! Just spur-of-the-moment decided to put together some reference for folks who want to draw/model black characters in their work, but arent confident they won’t make simple, obvious mistakes w/r/t black hair. END ID}

obi-mom-kenobi

I noticed in the comments that some people can’t see the thread, so I took screenshots for y'all!

More will come in reblogs, since tumblr has an image limit

obi-mom-kenobi

jamiegeode

@creatingblackcharacters !!!

#drawing references

catsdelightful-deactivated20240

Anyway, go check it out. I just wanted to save it and share it because I didn’t know how much I didn’t know!

misslunarose

This is an amazing resource, not only for artists, but for writers too! I love this!

obi-mom-kenobi

I noticed in the comments that some people can’t see the thread, so I took screenshots for y'all!

More will come in reblogs, since tumblr has an image limit

obi-mom-kenobi

jamiegeode

@creatingblackcharacters !!!

toast-star

something i think a lot of white people don't understand is that saying racist antiblack things 'ironically' 'as a joke' 'satirically' or 'as bait' is still... just being racist. as if saying 'bait used to be believable' somehow undoes the disrespect? as if pointing out that its probably a bot or a psyop nullifies the slurs? as if informing me that its a meme/copypasta/reference means you're not at fault for repeating them? as if any of this is okay? it doesn't work like that. why is the hatred and disrespect of black people acceptable background noise for you? why do you find it funny?

stemmonade

help a disabled Black Trans couple avoid homelessness and stay afloat

(id in alt text)

new monthly post: my wife and i are disabled Black trans folks living in TX, both currently unemployed despite our best efforts, and we are at risk of being evicted and losing our home every month on top of not being able to afford any of our living expenses (like our utilities or the costs of managing our disabilities). as a result, we are reliant on mutual aid to stay afloat. reblogging this post (WITH NO TAGS UNLESS TO GIVE ACCESSIBILITY INFO) and donating helps the most. please, PLEASE help us not be on the streets and lose everything again.

my main three apps | my wife's apps (send rent donations here!!) | shared links and registry

stemmonade

8/13

$347.93/$1262.24 (12 days past due, $914.31 needed by 8/21 to avoid eviction)

$10/$277 for power bill (8 days past due, must be paid in full by 8/25 to avoid shutoff)

$0/$90 for groceries

made some progress, but we need people to CONTINUE TO DONATE CONSISTENTLY if i have any hope of keeping us housed. our power bill goal really hasnt moved, and i also need $90 to pick up a few things we need in the house. until my wife and i are able to get jobs, we have no other way of being able to survive without help. please consider chipping in.

my wife's links (send rent donos here ONLY!!!!) | my pay links + our patreon (send power bill donos here ONLY) | where to send $ for groceries

#signal boost

creatingblackcharacters

Why do Black people always look absolutely STUNNING in yellow ????

Say it with me now:

Melanin what?

Melanin loves color!

creatingblackcharacters

Hello, I'm hoping my ask is not foolish! But if it is you can delete it of course

My ask is about Black hair styles and gender expression

I have been learning about Black hair and care, and I saw your complaint that people give Black male characters the same types of short locs with the sides shaved. Often I see a lot more hair care content geared towards women, though, and most of my references have been for women, but sometimes I see similar styles for men. I think I've been learning more about how the hair care process, time and economic situation factors into styling but I'm still unsure about gender so I wanted to ask since I've also read there is a problem of making Black women overly masculine and stripping Black men of their masculinity except for when making them appear violent, so I thought learning about hair and gender together could help me design better characters?

Something I've been wondering about is if there are as many gender roles about Black hair as we white people have? Like, as a white person (also sorry if I am supposed to also capitalize white, I don't really know the etiquette, I just don't want it to seem like I'm identifying as Proudly White or anything) it's always "men's haircut" or "women's haircut" with different prices at the salon and they're always like "I'm going to cut it this way instead so you look more feminine" even when I don't want that, every little detail feels gendered. But I sort of can't tell if there are like designated gender haircuts for Black hair? It looks like anyone is "allowed" to shave down to bald, have short hair, locs of various kinds, and braids. Are there details I'm not noticing that play in? I think it has been more popular among women to style baby hairs, relax and straighten hair, and wear wigs, and more common for men to have shaved sides, but I've seen people of various genders do those things and I'm not sure if that's counted as gender nonconforming or if it's completely accepted or even expected. When writing characters that are both queer and Black, does hair typically play a big part in expressing queerness? Or when writing cishet characters are there any hair details that will make a Black reader think "wow they have no idea what they're doing they just drew the gayest man alive and said he has a wife and kids"? Are there any styles that will make someone feel really particularly femme and beautiful?

Thank you for your time, if you've already talked about this and I haven't seen it yet I would love to find where!

The short answer to this very complex question is "yes, technically". Yes, there are styles that we'd more likely see on women vs men, but there's a lot of fluidity about it. Plus, tbh, your gender presentation isn't just about your hair, so whether something comes across "masculine" or "feminine" (or other, I suppose!) usually depends on the entirety of how the person THEMSELF presents, and how confident THEY are.

For example, my short afro is gender neutral- you can see this style on any of us. But what I choose to wear and how to present is what will make it "feminine" or otherwise. Ludacris wore two big ass afro puffs, a style one might normally think is for girls- who was gone beat his ass about it? Andre 3000 done wore every sort of hairstyle- who was gone beat his ass about it 🤣 you see the pattern!

donjuaninhell

I swear, some of you people somehow manage to possess all of the three most unfortunate character traits someone can have: a) kinda stupid, b) obnoxiously contrarian, c) deeply annoying.

tockthewatchdog

stuff you say when you don’t give a fuck about women quite frankly

cardassiangoodreads

Hence the not-uncommon adage that the washing machine did even more for women's liberation than the birth control pill

what-even-is-thiss

A lot of my vegetarian friends don’t get why I still eat meat even though I mostly eat vegetarian with just occasional meat when left to my own devices and at the end of the day it’s because I just don’t have the same moral issues involved with killing animals that they do.

Yes I love animals. I don’t love them because they’re cute and I feel bad for killing them though. I love them as part of the broader ecosystem. I respect them. Probably more than they respect me, because at the end of the day I know that a chicken wouldn’t hesitate to eat me if it had the means and I don’t see why I shouldn’t strike first.

what-even-is-thiss

I’m just not ashamed of being an omnivore. Yes this chicken was once an individual. Thank you chicken for your sacrifice. You were delicious and gave me some very necessary B vitamins.

ivipl1

sprite edits of my Mew Mew design from this post! and also the small versions

theprofessional-amateur

link to bluesky post

theprofessional-amateur

In addition to how to turn various things, it includes:

Other useful AI Removal/Detection links

How to spot AI Hallucinations like a Reference Librarian (originally on Substack)

Library Freedom Project has a lot of handouts about AI on their Resources page

teaboot

Not pertinent to anything in particular but I do think it's kinda weird that we keep depicting cavemen in media crawling around on all fours covered in dirt with tangled, matted hair, speaking in broken, cobbled-together toddler language when like.

They were us.

Like literally genetically they were US, just like. A while ago.

Would you trust a TV caveman with a baby? Probably not

A real life caveman though??? I think they'd be at least okay at it

sheilikhal

This is actually really important and comes up in Anthropology classes all. The. Time.

As long as homo sapiens have existed, we have had the same emotional and mental capacity as you and I do today. You nailed it. They were US. Even Neaderthals existed alongside and had offspring with Homo Sapiens for many thousands of years.

There's much evidence that cavemen would have had complex spoken language, culture (learned information passed down), symbolic interpretation, and I think they most certainly would have been able to handle holding a baby. In fact I have my suspicisions that an ancient homo sapiens mother may be a more present, attentive, and knowledgable mom than I could be today.

Do not let media trick you into believing we are the pinnacle of humanity. Unilinial evolution theory (google it quick I beg) is BUNK, GARBAGE, and the root of so much evil.

We've been human for a long, long time, and we are not inherently better than all those who came before.

fresne999

One the most profound experiences of my life was visiting Font de Gaume, which has 12 thousand year old paintings. They use a technique where the horses appeared to run across the wall when seen in flickering firelight. There was a bison the wall staring at us with such attitude, I could practically hear him. I had the most profound feeling of those ancient artists reaching forward to lay their hands on my shoulders. To say, "This was my world." It was a profoundly moving experience.

Some years later, I went to the Orkney islands where we visited a tiny family run museum of artifacts from the chambered tomb at the other end of the farm. They handed me a pestle once held by some neolithci human.They'd worn groves where the thumb and forefinger would be for better grip.

cymbie

One time, in a French history class, my teacher randomly at the end of the class had all of us draw a sketch of a horse. And we were all like ??? Okay???

At the beginning of the next class, my teacher showed us a cave painting of a horse. And then he showed all of our horses, which he had scanned and put into the presentation.

He then pointed out all the ways that our horses looked similar to the prehistoric horse. Same features, drawn from the same angle, etc.

And then he asked us, "Isn't it cool that you draw horses the same way as someone who lived 20,000 years ago?"

Yeah. That stuck with me for a while.

catgirlthecrazy

In Spain, there's a cave full of ancient, ice age era drawings of bison and reindeer and other animals of that period... And one small section of chaotic scribbles just a little away from everything else. These scribblesv were so incomprehensible, they were originally just called the 'Panel of Enigmatic Signs'... Until it occurred to someone that drawings only three feet off the ground probably weren't made by adults.

Scientists are now pretty sure the scribbles were made by kids ages 3-6, more or less on their own. The adult cave artists were probably doing what any modern parent might do when they want to keep small children out of their hair for awhile: they gave the kids some drawing tools of their own and a small section of wall to work on, out of the way but still close enough to keep an eye on them, and let them have at it.

What's most charming about the whole thing is the way the cave scribbles look exactly like what you'd find on the wall of a preschool today. Artistic styles vary widely across different times and cultures, but child development is as near to a universal human experience as it gets.

mikkeneko

Wisher made detailed 3D scans of the drawings, which helped her understand the uneven pressure applied to the charcoal and the direction the lines were drawn. The team then compared the panel’s composition with age-appropriate artistic efforts by modern children. Kids across cultures go through the same developmental stages, which influence their physical ability to draw, until about the age of 6, Amir notes.

The team compared the ancient art with the developmental stages exhibited by modern children: the furiously scribbled circles and push-pull lines typical of 3-year-olds just learning to control their bodies, for example, or the wobbly, right-angled figures of slightly older kids beginning to master fine motor skills.

Both are apparent in the cave, superimposed on each other as though two or more kids were drawing at once. That’s a clue the Las Monedas marks were likely made by “siblings or a mixed-age play group within the sphere of safety around adults, but also within their own space,” says co-author Felix Riede, an Aarhus archaeologist.

...

Adults at Las Monedas would have been aware of what the kids were doing and presumably had lit fires or torches; without ample firelight the cave is pitch black.

morwentrouble

adding the paleolithic child scribble pic & my favorite quotes from the same article linked above:

“They’re experimenting to get to know materials that are important in their world. They’re not trying to draw animals, they’re just trying to break the charcoal.” [...]

The authors say the same combination of developmental psychology and archaeological analysis could be applied to “enigmatic” symbols in other ancient caves. “I hope this makes it easier to identify children’s art in the past,” Wisher says. “Our attention is drawn to figurative art, and we tend to overlook these small scribbles—but I think they exist. And that’s probably thanks to children, bored while mom and dad are making stag drawings.”

creatingblackcharacters

i just wanted to say ive been on tumblr too damn long and its abt to show but i dont think ive seen any dashboard event thats captured Black joy and spread positivity in a way that comes close to the old dashboard Blackouts as the MBC!! Its been so wonderful seeing everyones contributions and the community spirit. (for anyone not knee deep in tumblr lore, Blackouts were dashboard events where the only people who posted selfies that day were Black ppl and it served as a sort of visibility day? of sorts? youd see an increase in antiracist posts and donation posts alongside them as well but they happened pretty regularly. i was too young to remember who organized it if anyone but my impression was always that it was some kind of decentralized tumblr event). It made my heart happy I hope we see many more of these events in the future

I wish I'd been here for those. The way Black people got chased off this site... Digital razing of a Black community, truly.

But thank you! I think what would be more comparable, and what I really want nonblack people to be more supportive of, is Blacktober! The original event was cancelled due to- you guessed it- extreme antiblackness. But people still draw for it! There ARE Black artists still here, if you actually look for us!

So if you enjoyed the #MBC, you should follow the #Blacktober tag this year (you CAN do that automatically using Tumblr) and really share and support Black creators as they do the same thing! "I don't go to that fandom" who cares? Share because it's good art! We showed our love for Black character design during the MBC, let's show it for Black creatives, Black people too!

creatingblackcharacters

All right y'all... The day has finally come... Where I must ask for help, myself 😭🙏🏾

This is NOT mandatory, and of course there are causes that need much more help. So don't feel pressured! But if you happen to have a little to spare, I am getting tooth surgery this Friday and they charged me 2k upfront 😭 and then when I asked if it could be split, they told me I ran the risk of my jaw shifting if so 😭 but I have been in pain with these back molars for months and I've been stalling to pay for other things, so... I gotta just take the L but. Anything helps 🙏🏾 Much appreciated if you do 🙏🏾

#signal boost

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SkritzMuffin