not technically dead

“And we loved it, we were all having a great time, but then he saw my sister and I, and he just got this - this look in his eyes, and then-”

She hesitated, worrying the coarse material between her fingers. “Things got pretty bad after that,” she muttered. “I know it’s silly, but I try to keep - her - comfortable. We don’t know if she can still hear us, or see us, or if she’s even still in here, but I like to think she is. I talk to her when I can, I leave music on when I’m out of the house. I tried to convince my parents to bring her with us when we went to Disneyland, but they didn’t - didn’t really take that well.”

It might not be so malicious a motivation. Instead of having a problem with "you thinking you deserve better than how they want to treat you," it could be zero percent about you and 100% about them in their mind (even ifthey can'tconsciously express this). It could be that the problem they have with this situation is the idea that they're doing harm, ESPECIALLY the idea that they're doing harm when they think they aren't.

I've met plenty of people that fall into this alternative category, where they ONLY see how hard they're trying, how stressed they are, how "good" of a person they're striving to be (from their worldview), and then they're told that - no - in fact they are hurting someone. Which can sound like "you are wrong, you are bad, you do bad things, and this has always been true and will always be true" so they get defensive and reactive.

Boiled grain

Flatbread with various toppings

Flatbread wrapped around filling

Fried lean meat

Stew of fatty meat and starch

Fermented vegetable

Oily sauce

Aromatic herbs

Stimulant alkaloids

So I look up a pretty prominent Star Wars guild and message one of their council and ask them to poll the same question and get back to me in a week. They do, and naturally the fuckin geeks said "Death Star".

Anon, I’m adding your ask here so no one will be confused about the context of your absurdly racist belief, and as more evidence of my original point.

First, let me briefly point out that the film/tv industry has more than its fair share of sexual offenders, both on and behind the screen. Indeed, any industry will have sex offenders among their ranks because of how society at large functions. I doubt that in your life you never watched, listened to, played, or interacted in any other way with a piece of media that didn’t have someone that did something that you find offensive.

But that’s a discussion for another time with someone else. You say that you listen to rap, and that you enjoy it. But then you posit that all straight Black male rappers are all automatically rapists, and that’s why you don’t support them. Allow me to explain that not only is this a DANGEROUS notion to take root in your mind, it’s also not original. Black men being considered rapists is a threat that’s been aimed at us for centuries to justify the violence that befalls us from the hands of racism. You unilaterally say that all “mainstream” rappers are rapists, an incredibly racist and offensively untrue statement by any measure of common sense and decency.

You could’ve said you don’t want to support Sean “Diddy” Combs and anyone that’s worked closely with him, and left it at that; but instead you decided to say that because of him; ALL straight Black male rappers are rapists. You suggest this about rappers that were around before him, that are gaining fame after his arrest, and rappers that have never even met him. You say you listen to Black women and Black queer folks and think this somehow absolves of the cartoonishly racist statement you make of straight Black men. And I think you know this is a racist thing to believe because you’re on anonymous, and like all forms of bigotry (your racism in this case) is a form of intellectual dishonesty and cowardice.

Just because you supposedly listen to Black female rappers and Black queers rappers doesn’t mean you’re not espousing the same tired, myopic, rhetoric that’s been force fed into your head from hundreds of years of white supremacy propaganda. Indeed, if you’re going to come into my inbox and talk out your neck about Black men, to a Black man, the least you can do is try to come up with something new. But you can’t, because all antiBlack ideas were thought up before you were born, spread by more people than you’ll ever know, and expressed in more ways than you perceive to be possible. You only think you’re being brave and saying what needs to be said, but you’re just being a puppet for good ol’ fashion racism.

I could list the many rappers that have been nothing but positive beacons for our community, but I don’t see the point in talking to someone so diametrically opposed to my and my brethren’s existence.

I've got a crush on you 💘