I feel like racism is more pronounced in America. The disease is still there, it’s the same disease, but it just manifests in a different way. British culture is way more reserved, so it’s more systematic. – Daniel Kaluuya
This is what I always think when people claim that Americans spend too much time on racism, and that racism isn’t as bad as it is in other countires, and that we just make it more than what it is.
Like, it’s just as bad, but you have all inernlized it to the point of thinking it’s disapeared. You think your country is the best regarding racism, partly because you are someoen who doesn’t/can’t experience it.
It’s always white people who are regarding racism as a sort of American thing, not realizing that you all think racism is non-existent because you perpetrate an idea and system that makes it impossible for it to be as pronounced. and when it’s not as pronounced, it never gets fixed.
When I was a kid, I read the autobiographical novel To Sir, With Love by
the African-British writer
E.R. Braithwaite. It was written in 1959, and he made the exact same observations about US vs UK racism. It was something that always stuck with me, how the same racism can look different in different places. 60 years later, what has changed?
Can we appreciate how The Brain’s parents keep a dictionary just to look up words that their son says that they don’t understand, but they want to encourage him in his intelligence and don’t shut him down with ‘In English please’ like most people in cartoons will tell the smart characters?
Even real life parents are more likely to ask for their kid to rephrase their sentence while using simpler terms, and having seen this with my brother, it discourages the kid from even talking to the parent because they start to think a)they don’t understand them b)they are stupid and c)they have no middle ground to meet at.
But The Brains parents are so caring and want Alan to never feel odd or like he can’t talk to them so they keep a dictionary- a very thick one- just to be able to talk to their son without having to make him feel like a bother for using words that aren’t every day regular people words.
And they black
The Brain is a fucking bear. A BEAR. Holy shit tumblr, you never dissapoint me.
@naturelovefreedom HE’S AN AFRICAN AMERICAN CODED ANTHROPOMORPHIC CHARACTER!!!
HAVE YOU IDIOTS NEVER WATCHED ARTHUR??!!
HE CALLS HIMSELF AFRICAN AMERICAN!!!!
Omg!!!!
A link to the Christmas special, time stamped to where The Brain specifies that he celebrates Kwanzaa (41:48): https://youtu.be/ygXALnyCa0c?t=41m48s
“And the raspberry (represents) the African struggle for freedom”
This one is the timestamp for the Kwanzaa celebration itself (51:28)(it’s a brief clip in the episode wrap-up of everyone celebrating at home): https://youtu.be/ygXALnyCa0c?t=51m28s
Thank you! They been blowing me up!
Bruh. Why do they always step so far out of their lane?
they have been really trying it over this post
Anyone who thinks race does not exist in Arthur did not watch Arthur correctly/doesn’t remember enough. All of the characters hint at nationalities, at traditions from their grandparents etc. who lived in other countries, and even religions. Meaning, yes, race exists in Arthur-BUT NO ONE IS FIGHTING OVER RACES IN THE SERIES WHICH IS FUCKING BEAUTIFUL.
Brain has African roots-and African cousins. According to Wiki, those roots come from the Senegalese area of Africa. They even did a song about Africa when said cousin visited.
You could even argue that Francine is black, based on the makeover episode where rich white girl Muffy tries to change her style to make her girly while also criticizing everything about Francine and her poor lifestyle. In that episode, Francine’s Bad Hair Day, you can very clearly tell they are making a hint that Francine has hair that is much different than Muffy’s. Sound familiar? Black hair and white hair are not the same. Hair is hair, but depending on your race, your hair tends to be much different than others.
The Reeds neighbors are Mexican
Binky Barnes family adopted a Chinese baby Mei Lin Barnes.
And you can’t go off their colors alone on the show. You have to know them as a person before you get the hints of what race the characters are meant to represent. In some cases yes, you can very clearly see what race someone is meant to represent but in an animal form-like Emily, DW’s friend, but in some cases, like when Celebrities were on the show, they either had the characters colors look like the person skin or changed it up to fit the series. Examples:
Mr. Rogers was one of the whitest old men around on TV, and we all loved him, but in Arthur he’s a dark tan/light brown
The same goes for Jack Prelutsky
Yo-Yo Ma -because no one on earth is a silvery gray
Alex Trebeck played himself but with a different last name
Then we have some very clear examples of characters fitting color schemes of their real life counterparts races.
Neil Gaiman
Backstreet Boys
Joshua Reedman (Aka Francine’s canon uncle)
Michael Fincke
Michelle Kwan (a little paler in her Arthur appearance but it still works)
Race, nationalities, religion and all of that stuff exist in Arthur no matter how you try to water it down or deny it. The big difference between Arthur and our world is that in Arthur- I state again that Race and Nationality were not put down, they were not even big deals to the characters, but something to learn about and find out that no matter how people may look, what they do, people are people, and you should always accept people no matter their race, nationality, traditions, etc. If you didn’t take that from the show, I don’t know what you did take out of it other than a meme.
fun fact: y’all don’t have to throw black ppl under the bus or belittle black struggles in order to bring light to issues other poc face. like its 100% possible to speak on issues other poc face without insulting black people and show casing ur anti-blackness
U N D E R S T A N D T H I S
Lemonade was not made for me, either. As a Singaporean Chinese woman, I would be lying if I said I was familiar with the complex, myriad ways Beyoncé explores black female personhood, sexuality, and spirituality in the film. But as a non-American, non-white woman, what I am familiar with is appreciating art that is not and will never be made with me in mind.
This is a process that white people are now struggling with more publicly than ever. It seems to me that much of the pain in this process comes from entitlement, which often stems from ignorance. I wonder: Do white people in the Western world understand just how much of global popular culture is tailored to their tastes and their histories? Do white people in the Western world know that, for non-white people who wish to participate in and discuss global popular culture, being well-versed in white cultural and musical history is almost compulsory? Do white people in the Western world know how laughable it is that they feel excluded just because a popular work of art dares to be less culturally legible to them?
it’s true do, his mom is Jamaican he just straightens his hair,
baby pete
natural hair texture
WHAT
this is so important
But can we talk about the subtle ways he’s been focusing in on Blackness with their latest album? In the Centuries music video, he portrays Jesus as a Black man. In another scene with three women, it’s a dark skinned Black women who is front and center, and the white women are to either side of her. The album art for American Beauty/American Psycho features a young white boy with a black and white American flag on his face. It’s a recession flag, but symbolizes a call for change and has more recently it’s been used as a response to the police brutality. It’s used a lot in hip hop… usually hung sideways. He also said that the Ferguson protests inspired some of the lyrics on that album. Some awesome things to consider.
Shoutout to passing mixed people acknowledging their heritage and struggle!
Reminder: Mixed race people often get shit on for being “too pale” and often cannot take part in their own heritage and culture for fear of backlash from folks shouting “cultural appropriation.” Mixed race folks who can and do stay true to their heritage are such wonderful, brave people.
Holy fuck
It’s just now hitting me this man had a perm this whole time
Now remember that flat-ironing their hair is something emo kids always got made fun of for doing…
i absolutely support march for our lives but please recongize how racism comes into play. the media never supported BLM like this, the public never did, and sure as hell not everyone marching today did. if you’re out there preaching for keeping kids safe from guns, u better not be forgetting all the black kids who have lost their lives to them from police.
“Lemonade was not made for me, either. As a Singaporean Chinese woman, I would be lying if I said I was familiar with the complex, myriad ways Beyoncé explores black female personhood, sexuality, and spirituality in the film. But as a non-American, non-white woman, what I am familiar with is appreciating art that is not and will never be made with me in mind. This is a process that white people are now struggling with more publicly than ever. It seems to me that much of the pain in this process comes from entitlement, which often stems from ignorance. I wonder: Do white people in the Western world understand just how much of global popular culture is tailored to their tastes and their histories? Do white people in the Western world know that, for non-white people who wish to participate in and discuss global popular culture, being well-versed in white cultural and musical history is almost compulsory? Do white people in the Western world know how laughable it is that they feel excluded just because a popular work of art dares to be less culturally legible to them?”
wupacing 