It’s still #FergusonOctober, and people are still protesting police brutality in light of the Ferguson and Shaw shootings.
Darren Wilson’s account has finally been released, if you have any interest in how the Ferguson police are still mishandling this case.
As always, you can find information about action via Facebook, Twitter, and generally everywhere online and you can participate in the upcoming day of action on Oct. 22nd.
Oh, and just a reminder of the disparate reactions to civil rights demonstrations vs. an actual riot: here’s just a couple articles about the “incident” (AKA it’s a bunch of drunk white kids, so you know, harmless) at a pumpkin festival in Keene, NH. Again, media matters, and the way we frame Ferguson versus an obvious unwarranted riot is entirely based around race and anti-blackness.
In the world of sports, Russian tennis chief Shamil Tarpischev has been fined and issued a one-year ban on all tennis activities for referring to Serena and Venus Williams as the “Williams brothers” on a late night Russian talk show. Serena called out his remarks as sexist and racist.
A Philadelphia teen originally from West Africa was taunted by a rival team during a soccer game with chants about Ebola. Ibrahim Tounkara got into a fight after he heard the players taunting him. “There were tears coming down his eyes. He was visibly shaken by this, that it got to that level on the field.” The coach and assistant coach for the rival team resigned and some of the students are set to face disciplinary actions.
West Africans have taken action against the mounting racism surrounding the hysterical rhetoric around the Ebola “outbreak.” Some have banded together to film a video to combat the stereotypes and stigmas against the disease and counter the sensationalist news reporting.
Remember that Kara Walker Domino exhibit that had people taking ridiculous pictures, mocking the art, and mostly just missing the whole point? Kara Walker knew that all of that would happen going into the project, because Kara Walker is great.
After being missing for almost two weeks, Native actress Misty Upham’s body was found late last week. Misty’s family is using this tragedy to shine a light on the violence endured by Native women, particularly at the hands of the police.
Have you seen Dear White People yet? No? We have! (J: I finally did this weekend!) Everyone is talking about the movie and we’re hoping this movie continues to grow and contribute to the conversations about race, gender, sexuality, and identity in the media.
Did you hear that Jon Stewart tried to get Bill O’Reilly to talk about white privilege as a thing that exists? Surprise! It didn’t go well.
In the Marvel vs. DC movie clash, the primary winner has been the mostly white male casts and white male crews profiting from the success, but a new article from The Hollywood Reporter and the projected movie plan from DC may indicate that more women- and PoC-fronted films are coming to cinemas, giving DC a slight edge in the diversity points. This of course doesn’t actually account for the actual films, which are years away from being cast, filmed, and released. This also doesn’t factor in the nerd rage over racebending or colorblind casting and the fact that we should be satisfied with the representation of women and people of color in the films already. (Though, good luck trying to find any merchandise related to those characters.) As for the the current profit frontrunner, Marvel, they can call me when there’s a woman of color lead in their movies who is not in full body makeup.
The Aerogram has an interesting piece on the rise of South Asian comedians and how their comedy is slowly debunking model minority myths and changing perceptions of immigrant identities. Speaking of South Asian comedies, Sunny Tripathy has finalized a development deal to bring an Indian-American family sitcom to Fox. Let’s hope for less Outsourced/Apu from The Simpsons and more… anything but that.
In other comedy news, Chris Rock is back! While I’ve loved his dramatic work and his producer work in the past few years, I think Hollywood has suffered without him.
MTV’s Girl Code had an entire episode on racial biases as it comes to dating, friendships, and general life for people of color. It’s questionable at times… (white people, please never say you want to be “Spanish” or whatever) but there are some good, messy points in there.
And finally, here’s a great story out of the Village Voice about the Harlem Quartet, a string quartet that is changing people’s preconceived notions of what a string quartet should look like.
3 replies on “PoC News in America”
Pretty sure I won’t get DWP here because POC here are mostly North African and it probably just confuses the cinema owners.
Ferguson and how it’s being handled is like one big reason why I’m okay with not being in the US right now. Because being part of the media and not talking about that without white society bias ..I couldn’t.
That’s terribly sad. I hope that as soon as it’s out on DVD, you can get it. I will definitely make sure I own it.
As for Ferguson, it’s a tough situation. The problem with some of the major think pieces that are being written in the major media outlets face that same problem. They are framing it in terms of white bias/society, and it’s not.
The selfies taken with “A Subtlety” reminded me of that performance art where Ayana Evans walked through MoMA in a zebra print catsuit. People were taking photos of her when they thought no one was watching, pointing and laughing and generally being disrespectful assholes. On the one hand, I appreciate giving people ‘enough rope to hang themselves,’ and watch them walk into the snare, but it still pisses me off that this sort of dehuamnizing behavior toward Black women has no consequences in our culture.