Racism - On Hollywood and Whitewashing

Racism - On Hollywood and Whitewashing

Originally I wrote this rant about Hollywood, and whitewashing stories. It was angry, and inspired by the most recent stab in Ghost in the Shell, where they've decided to cast Scarlet Johansson (whom I love as an actress) as the quite Japanese Mokoto Kusanagi.

Then I thought about my rant. It's not just that I'm angry, but actually, it is more that I'm hurt. And I'm hurt not only for Hollywood, which I'm angry at, but I'm hurt for everyone culturally that shares the plight with me. I'm hurt for everyone who has gone before me and seen mainstream media evolve this way. I'm hurt for my generation, caught in this weird precipice of knowing better and not being able to express ourselves on what we want or how to get it.

And I'm hurt for the generation that is coming after mine, that deserves better.

Life - Dekay

Life - Dekay

The slow dekay of friendships into acquaintances, and from acquaintances into passing strangers. Where once you talked every day, and now are not fish to even wish each other good tidings. You both yearn for what was lost, but can't quite put your finger on when things started to break down so thoroughly. Only that they did. The passing of days and weeks into months and years, until you can't recall each others' faces anymore except what you see, carefully crafted and manipulated in digital print.

You can't be friends with everyone. You say to yourself. You rationalize. There are only so many hours in a day, so much energy and attention to spread around. And you do a damn good job with the friends you have. But maybe you yearn for the ease of what you once had. But maybe. But maybe...

But the decline runs through, and you see each other on the train. And instead of recognizing, you turn away and walk down the space between cars, and put your headphones back in.

It's easier to forget.

Worlds - On Internet

Worlds - On Internet

I was just thinking fondly of the internet, when I was a young man, a boy. The places we would frequent, the spaces we created when only the people most passionate MADE spaces. It was a wild world of personality and people before the corporations came, and before the whole Web 2.0 ideas took hold. Where putting out words required technical skills.

The world is a different place now. Those spaces are gone and return 404s. Where are you lizzard, or elvy. or pandora? Where did we all go?

Who did we grow up into?

Theatre - World Theatre Day 2016

Theatre - World Theatre Day 2016

Happy World Theatre Day everyone.

Thoughts - On Tomorrow

Thoughts - On Tomorrow

It's not enough that when we look at bigots, racists, and the discriminatory that we shake our heads and ponder how they will be on the wrong side of history one day. That day is today. That moment is now. Unless we fight to correct attitudes of belittlement, othering, and discrimination, 'history one day' will always be a tomorrow that never comes.

Musings - Son

Musings - Son

The greatest failing I have as a son, is that I cannot seem to make myself known to my father. I am an extension of an idea, an archaic concept, but not a human. I am this collection of synapses in error.

To him, I am not a being, but a thing.

Thoughts - Reversing Diversity

Thoughts - Reversing Diversity

When someone responds to my posting that has the hastag #BlackLivesMatter, with their post of #AllLivesMatter...

I usually just block them immediately. Here's why. Because that person doesn't understand. They are replying to the intentionality that I have for a social plight with attempting to undermine mine. That's the problem. They are hoping to make one cause into every cause. But one cause isn't every cause. Every cause, whether it's LGBTQ, Suicide Prevention, Racial Discrimination, Sexism, or the myriad of other ways humans find ways to hate each other....requires different approaches.

Some of the steps we use to bring empathy to the 'other side' so to speak are common, but in many cases, the societal battles we fight for equality and justice are very different.

To conflate them into one thing, is to demean the struggles many of us have with our skin colour, our gender, our identity, our personal struggles, or our ethnicity or cultural heritage.

If you don't understand that, then the truth is that your understanding of plight is ignorant at best, and destructive at worst.