The Good Bits Of 2017

Watching Heartstopper has made me realize that we’re trained to expect that the other shoe will somehow drop in queer media. That something terrible is just going to happen. (Someone gets outed or worse)

And Heartstopper presented us with an opportunity to create queer media without NEEDING for something terrible to happen. Honestly, it was refreshing. I’d like to see more content like this.

so yeah what are you supposed to do when you’re at the age where everything you do actually counts for your future but you have 0% of your shit together and are 150% depressed

rb if you love julie molina, are lgbtq, are neurodivergent, or are angry at netflix for not renewing your comfort show

no one will know which one :)

Is it just me or is Bobby shining more this season? I’ve only watched the first four episodes of the new season but so far, I’m really glad I’m seeing more of Bobby and how he personally connects with the heroes.

It’s been a while since I watched the previous seasons, but the most I remember of seeibg Bobby clearly shine was with renovating Tammye’s church while managing his past with religion and with renovating and designing Wesley’s house -this one clearly demonstrated what it really means to make a home accommodate a hero.

But this season, I’m glad that the audience gets to see more of Bobby’s involvement, which I think was always unseen because there’s so much footage to use, little time to cut it into, and the amount of entertainment and nuance a scene with selecting furniture pieces and designing a home could bring.

I’m glad that Bobby was given more closure with his past by getting an apology by someone who represents a church and how he was able to personally connect and help Tyreek with managing money after being homeless and making a home for him that he could call his own and he comfortable in. I’m hoping that the producers asked Bobby how comfortable he would be working with a church again before making Pastor Noah a hero (Which is something they should have considered before that insensitive “prank” they pulled on Karamo).

Overall, I’m hopping to see way more of Bobby and his contributions shine more for the rest of this season and the next.

As the media begins to dial back on their coverage of a particular view of the BlackLivesMatter protests, we need to stay vigilant to working towards social and institutional change for Blacks lives in America. We need to continue to educate ourselves on the history of the problem, how it has ultimately affects today, and what we must do to ensure that our mistakes aren’t repeated.

As a first generation Asian American, I’ve always felt a little out of place, because I was taught in school that racism was a black and white issue and didn’t consider the model minority myth a part of that problem until a couple of years ago. But now is a better time than any for anybody who never educated themselves to learn.

My process began years ago, and sadly it wasn’t because I came to the revelation myself, but out of necessity from being surrounded in mainly Black and Brown classmates. After years of learning the anti-black rhetoric in my family (subtle comments and attitudes), stereotypes in media, and in elementary school text books that teach me that racism is over and that it ended hundred of years ago, I moved to a middle school where even less of my classmates looked like me and came from low-income neighborhoods. There, I slowly became aware of the boundaries that race created, both as one of the only two Asian students and while being surrounded by Black and Brown students who grew up knowing about those boundaries.

At first, I gave in to the racism I was taught; I was weary around my Black and Brown peers and mainly only befriended my lighter-skinned peers. Becoming aware of how racism is still prevalent was a slow process, I was slow to learn about how racism is instilled in and helped build many of our current institutions. More embarrassingly, I played into the model minority myth by considering myself a victim because I felt like my classmates disliked me because of Asian stereotypes and the model minority myth (ironically, what I was doing to them). I honestly left middle school believing that I was more tolerant, when I was just beginning to chip that my racist behaviors and beliefs.

It wasn’t until high school that I actually did some hardcore unlearning and dismantling to my teachings. Before sophomore year, I learned about Brock Turner’s 6-month sentence, aka the Stanford Rapist. Even though I grew up with anti-blackness surrounding me, I managed to stay away from misogyny and was open to understanding feminism in the way I had yet to with fighting racism. I was disgusted by this news and educated myself on the problems with rape cases in America, white privilege, and toxic masculinity. As I researched and read more, and more racist attitudes became more public due to Trump’s presidential campaign, I became more politically aware and sympathetic to my Black and Brown peers. I looked for media that was made by minorities and judged where the media I was seeing came from. I saw the subtle microaggressions coming from my family. I began to have open conversations with my friends about feminism, LGBT+ issues, immigration, and racism, learning first hand from people who were directly affected, instead of mainly reading about it, like I was doing for a while. (Besides actually having conversations with people, I was also beginning dismantling the internal racism I had towards myself and acknowledging how some of my experiences in middle school contributed to that.)

As great as learning and reeducating myself seems, I’ve been having some trouble with the next step: taking action and confronting the system that taught me how to be racist. It was much more difficult talking to parents about their views on BlackLivesMatter because for a long time I lied to myself that it was okay because they grew up in more traditional settings and thus became rigid in those beliefs, and acted patriotic to America because they believed the rhetoric that it’s the land of opportunity and felt in debted after fleeing from their home countries. But I’m wrong, since they don’t/didn’t have the same exposure as me to culture differences, it’s my responsibility to teach them why they have to change, no matter how much time it takes. For my mom, she’s still processing institutional racism, I don’t think she ever properly reflected on the history with was more feeding into the idea of America since she came. For my dad, who consumes much more American media, he’s much more stubborn to recognize the racism he learns about and constantly reinforced with the news. But that’s just from a few talks, I have to the duty to do more.

We all have to do more, because if confronting yourself and your family is difficult or uncomfortable, think about how Black people feel everyday, knowing that being cautious of how they act or behave won’t save them from being murdered. That anything they did or didn’t do would justify their murder in the eyes of people in positions of power. I could never understand how that feels, but I can do what I can to making sure that no one feels that terror.

What if “Crooked Teeth” is about having a difficult home life/ family problems and that’s why it’s about Reggie or why Reggie and Alex think the song is about the other?

who was your childhood crush, and why was it bill from eloise at christmastime?

can’t believe there’s going to be a new generation of pjo fans who automatically picture walker scobell when they think of percy jackson and not a hodgepodge of viria and burdge’s fanart. does that make me old

I just started watching Hospital Playlist after finishing Reply 1988 last week and I literally started crying when they started playing the Sangmundong theme. Actually, I think whenever I hear it, I start tearing up a little.

did alice really think it was okay to do this to me?