Tag: qed

Make liking black characters an active choice, because you’ve been conditioned not to

muchymozzarella:

This goes not only for white fans but for Asian fans of any media

I’m Filipino, and as an Asian who’s been submerged in enough Hollywood to know, we have been conditioned to be attracted to and like white characters in a way that we have not been with black characters. 

The reason I can identify it is that I grew up watching the amazing works of Dwayne McDuffie, the creator of Static Shock (my childhood crush) who made sure that an entire generation grew up with a black Green Lantern with Justice League and JLU. I grew up with black protagonists and black faves and it baffled me when other people couldn’t seem to appreciate black characters the way I did. 

It’s about the same as fangirls teaching themselves to like female characters and identify and snuff out their heteronormative internalized misogyny. And yes, even shipping gay characters can be heteronormative if you as a straight woman are disgusted by female characters or female relationships but will happily fetishize two men. It’s not even about being attracted to women or female relationships–simply to actively identify what you like about female characters and female relationships and enjoy them as you would male faves. To make the conscious decision to cut away your own misogyny against female characters.

We have not been conditioned to see black men as leading men, as heartthrobs, as celebrity crushes, as faves. Only recently have we seen a rise in black Hollywood heartthrobs like T’challa from Civil War and the upcoming Black Panther, or in main characters like Finn from Star Wars TFA.

And you as a fan who has been raised in racism and colorism need to make the active effort to look at these characters, who are identical to your usual faves in every way except they’re not white, and make the active decision to say “this character is beautiful and I want to see more content for them” and then follow through with it

And when you’ve done that enough, it’ll become second nature. It’s not something you can force, or need to. All you have to do is understand and remove your own hypocrisy and racism, and appreciate black leads and black faves as a fandom. 

sharpestrose:

lazaefair:

bodhiandors:

 “They are requesting a call sign.”

“It’s, um…Rogue. Rogue One.”

HE NAMED THE SHIP

BODHI ROOK FATHER OF ROGUE SQUADRON

(THE SQUADRON LUKE SKYWALKER FLEW IN)

AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF PILOTS AND STARFIGHTERS PAYING TRIBUTE TO HIM

IT’S HIM

HE’S THE PILOT

Bodhi Fuckin Rook. Let me talk about Bodhi Rook for a second.

Riz Ahmed’s first acting role was as a guy imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. One of the Tipton Three, who tried to sue Rumsfeld for torture and religious abuses but who failed because the torture hadn’t technically been prohibited and Rumsfeld was technically immune from prosecution.

So we take a guy with a very specific set of imagery associated with him and we put him stumbling and terrified in the desert with a bag covering his head. Heck, put him through interrogation techniques invasive enough that people tend to go crazy from them.

Take this guy, this guy whose skin is brown and whose family live in a war-torn city full of suicide attacks against tank-driven peacekeeping patrols.

Make him clever and brave and beautiful. Make the audience cheer when his plans go right. Make his intel pivotal to everything, and then do it again. 

Remember those jokes in Kevin Smith and Mike Myers movies about evil henchmen with regular families, about contract workers on the Death Star, about whether they deserved to die just for having worries about paychecks and taking a job? 

Those jokes are all about Bodhi Fucking Rook, an intergalactic long-haul trucker, and they aren’t jokes anymore because his answer is that you don’t stay some anonymous jerk just keeping his head down and acting like the machine he’s in isn’t his responsibility. You find something pure and strong in yourself, that inch of integrity Alan Moore told us about once, the thing that’s worth more than your life.

Luke Skywalker resonated with the audience because he was a fresh-faced farm boy setting off on the hero’s journey, and that gets us on a primal gut level.

Bodhi Rook isn’t an ancient archetype like Luke is. Bodhi Rook is a modern achetype. Bodhi Rook is the human face that we all hope looks back in the mirror at us when we ask ourselves if we’re willing to compromise our humanity – are we willing to ignore Guantanamo and Manus, turn a blind eye to Rumsfeld and Dutton and Morrison? Is it okay to take a job installing air conditioning on the Death Star when you know that it’s the Death Star, because someone’s gotta do it and you need the cash?

We all hope that when the question comes, we answer the way Bodhi Rook did.

ahickeyfromsawicki:

ok but like imagine all of the power rangers parents constantly asking where they’re going after dinner and eventually they all reply “um i’m in a band now??” and their parents are like AAAYYYYYYY I WANNA SEE YOU GUYS PLAY so on top of training and saving the world they now have to actually pretend to be in a band and play at school talent shows or whatever to keep up the lie. eventually they end up doing so well they book small gigs around town and theyre pretty well known and the lie just got so out of hand that now theyre signed to a record label working on their debut album