Oh yeah, we talkin' with titles now. Imma be so real with y'all for a second, I am standing on business as I write this with the intent to post it, and the only thing that's on my mind, is why Darren is so important to me.
NB: Quick lesson for the non-black people; black people are not allowed to be angry under the eyes of a white society. It is seen as threatening and it is a reminder of what black people can do when they get really upset (i.e. it reminds people that plantations burned, and revolutions started).
To start, no one knows how much joy it brings me to play black characters who get angry. Yes, I wrote them, but I let them be angry and that is fun for me. I derive joy from it because I LOVE when black people experience a range of emotions, especially the not so pretty ones. We are asked a lot to be anything but negative, and frankly, fuck that.
In NeXus, the idea of anger comes up as a theme. I made this a theme because I also have issues dealing with my anger in more healthy ways (see the above note) and that's why I made Darren. Darren exists to play on several strings, lemme show y'all Darren as they are the crux of this post.
This is Darren Lancer (he/they), an afro-japanese werewolf and rockstar who I based on Persephone and Cerberus. His frst iteration is (left) and his second iteration (right) are on view and my post is based on them.
To start, Darren is a very angry person because his ex, Jack Lopez, turned his boyfriend, Vernon, into a vampire against his will, and then tried to turn them forcefully. These are some very valid reasons to be upset, and Darren has sworn to end Jack for this (In case anyone ever doubted it, I hope your abuser/your rapist dies). Context established:
I LOVE DARREN.
I love them for the reason that their rage is on full display for eveyone to see they are angry and confrontational about what they want. They want Jack gone and they make it clear enough. They saw him and it was on sight.
Now you may be asking, "Laveau, what does this matter?", and to that I say, it matters because people like Darren are not allowed to be percieved as angry. Not even just black people, hell, the goddess he's based on is not typiclaly depicted as angry despite the context of her mythology and her origins giving her the rights to be seen as angry. Darren is japanese and a lot of people know that asian people being angry is not even considered much. Why this matters, is because I get to give Darren my balled up anger and RUN with it, which is more than any other black characters get.
"Angry characters exist-" BLACK. ANGRY. CHARACTERS. Do not get their own spotlight. In fact, Imma raise some hell, y'all be puttin' the "angry black person" stereotype on black charcters that ain't even fit it, just because they sneered at another (usually white) character one time.
Darren is important to me because they are angry but they are still a person. They are ready to scrap and beat up someone, but they exist as a person. In a world where black people are taught not to show their emotions, Darren exists as the counter to that where for once, a black character gets upset and starts kicking someone's ass. When asian people are taugh that anger is not becoming of them, Darren counters that. In a world where lycanthropy is an allegory for the release of something interanlized (in this case, rage) through animalistic form, Darren is given that opportunty to get upset and change his shape as a werewolf.
In a world where most people are taught to control their temper, I have given myself an outlet to show off that anger through a character and that is why Darren is important to me. They have shown me how good it feels to get angry about shit, and that is why it feels good to have angry black characters, and that's why black anger deserves its own spotlight.
Just finished the first season of altered carbon. Lizzie’s character really imprinted on me, tbh I don’t think I’ve cared about a character this much since I was a preteen. Down to the symbolism of the way she dressed, the choices she made, and how she ends up understanding herself in the end; Somehow it felt very relatable.
She also represents the alternative spirit:
following your desires. not those just driven by fear, even overcoming the drive to fall to it. Having the courage to care for others even while doing what you want. Protecting people when you think it’s right. Working towards a future that makes that easier for yourself and others, whim or not.
I just want to say that it’s not how you dress, or what you buy, or your hobbies, or outfit that make you alternative. It’s about imprinting the values that drive you into the community you build and surround yourself with.
It’s about creation, it’s not about the symbols themselves.
Personally, I think that’s what I’ll keep working towards.
The riots/violence might not be necessarily helping, but neither was being peaceful. That got us tear gassed, shot, arrested, assaulted, given curfews so there was an excuse to be violent. Peace just allowed police violence to continue against peaceful protestors.
Besides, we’re fucking mad. Black people are angry because of centuries of oppression that still hasn’t stopped. Because of the decades of a lot of our lives that have been lived in fear because of police brutality and racism.
Centuries of oppression breeds anger. Anyone should know that. And when a large group of people have a lot of anger, there has to be a way for them to vent it. Unless everything happening gets fixed, we’ll still be angry. Until our skin color isn’t a reason for us to fear for our lives, we’re going to be angry.
There’s no way to get that out. Not all of us can rap, not all of us can write songs. Even if we could, that doesn’t mean that it’ll change anything and we’ll just get more mad. Sitting at home doing nothing and walking around chanting doesn’t do anything to alleviate anger.
This kind of anger and rage will only ever be stopped through the systems oppressing us and threatening our lives being dismantled or rioting. There’s one or the other.
You can’t expect people to not vent this much rage in a seemingly appropriate way. There is no way to do that. It just ends in more built up anger and resentment that ends up exploding even bigger.
You can’t expect an entire race to just take this silently, with quiet action, or in any other way you deem appropriate. Instead of policing how we vent anger over one own being murdered and prioritizing how we let out our rage instead of trying to change, you should try policing the systems that caused this rage.
There is no reason for us to not be outraged at the system that rarely indicts murderers. And there is no reason for us not to be even more angered by those who prioritize property over lives and anger over the cause.
Because even when these riots end, the rage will still be there. Our silence doesn’t mean that we’re content, it just means that the time that it’s in any way acceptable to vent is over.
Do not mistake our silence with contentment. Understand that the rage we have left will just continue to build until the next time it erupts. If you want the rage to stop, stop giving us reasons to be angry. Only then will anything come of it.
So, I decided to make a tumblr cause of several of my friends recommending it to me. I realized this kind of social media is used for self expression, and then I realized. What exactly do I want to express about myself. So off the jump, I thought what are the most important things in my life.There’s music (90s Rap, R&B and current trap music among my favorites), Basketball, my black pride, and family.
If you know me then you know, I have tons of pride in being black. Like, it’s probably my favorite thing about myself. I absolutely love being black. It goes more then just appearance or genetic makeup. It’s all about the culture and the history.
I love the history of it all. The perseverance that has been constant among the years against oppression. The development of the culture itself and the spawning of so much amazing things. I love all of it.
However one thing I fucking hate with every fucking nerve in my body is when somebody says “Hey man, you don’t sound/act black.”
I’m pretty well worded if I do say so myself and I have an above average vocabulary and I like to flaunt it every now and again. So whenever I get some fuckboy ass white boy who listened to Dirty Sprite 2 and thinks he is black and he states “Bro, I think I’m blacker then you.”
First of all, I’ll fuck you up, you got me mad fucked up my dude. The fact you define yourself black because you attempt to portray stereotypical characteristics is vexatious and it honestly makes me wanna piece you the fuck up.
Second, you try to discredit my “blackness” cause I’m well worded? So you basically telling me if I speak with intelligence I can’t be black?
And that is what’s wrong with people today. They try to associate my people with ignorance and unintelligence and not only that, they try to put themselves apart of that very thing that they try to brand onto us.
Being black isn’t sagging your pants, or being good at basketball, or being able to rap. (Even though, most of the best basketball players and rappers are black.)
Also, one of your fucking parents is black then you can not be black. I don’t care if your best friend is black. I don’t care if your wife or husband is black. I don’t care if you fucked a black person. I don’t care if your fucking sister got pregnant by 3 different black dudes. Unless your mother fucking father and or mother is black, then you can not be black, end of discussion. I’m sorry to break it to you, I don’t make the rules I just abide by em.
(via Man Gives His Opinion On Black Lives Matter! The Main People)
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A few months before she left us, Sandra Bland recorded a video decrying the "Gang-bangers and Thugs" that she believes have negatively impacted her quality of life as well as harming peaceful people in her community and many American communities.
Essentially she was speaking about our National Epidemic of Child Abuse and Neglect that deprives untold American kids of experiencing a safe, fairly happy American kid childhood. Child abuse and neglect that often leads depressed children to develop into angry, frustrated, unpredictable teens and adults.
Did anyone hear or seriously consider Sandra's plea?
