The OA

Source: https://instagram.com/p/BZE_Zz8HuxQ/

I love this shot after OA get’s caught in the house. It’s such a good way of showing how trapped she feels. Nancy’s controlling behaviour, leads to OA carrying that ‘captivity mindset’ she talks about, even though she’s no longer a captive in Hap’s basement. By showing her though a tiny gap surrounded by the walls, there’s that sense of her being confined even though the door is open.

Some narratives are beginning-middle-beginning. Especially eastern ones.

This is 20 year old Rashan Charles. Rashan passed away on the 22 July 2017 after being rushed to hospital following an incident in a Hackney off-licence. Rashan walked into the off-licence, shortly after a uniformed police officer ran in to tackle Rashan to the ground. Cctv footage shows Rashan being thrown to the ground, and the police officer holding him down. Another uniformed officer joins this, and together they hold Rashan down for over a minute. Rashan became very unwell following this, and paramedics were called. Shortly after arriving at the hospital, Rashan, who was a young father, passed away. The media wants to focus on how Rashan supposedly swallowed something just before being detained, they want to paint him as a drug dealer. But, in the words of Pauline Pearce (known locally as the Hackney Heroine & Mama P after remonstrating with rioters in 2011): “despite the fact that they’re saying he was a drugs dealer - whatever the situation - he didn’t need to be a dead drugs dealer.” Rashan has been described as a “gentle and caring person,” by friends and family, who are demanding that the police officers responsible face consequences for the way they handled Rashan in the minutes before his death but are distancing themselves from any potential riots.

My baby niece (turned 2 recently) is a beautiful mixed baby, (mummy is Bajan & white British, daddy is black British of Jamaican decent but mummy is often mistaken as being white because she has auburn 3b hair and daddy isn’t around), so she has beautiful dark brown skin and has the cutest 4c hair ever and I want her to love both of those things about herself. But in our family, she only has one cousin who is also bajan/white/jamaican with afro texture hair who is male and a little lighter skin than her, and an aunt who is bajan/white with straight hair and an uncle who is bajan/white but both are much lighter skin than her. The rest of us are legit milk bottle white colour. So far I have found baby dolls online with her skin colour and natural hair (it took a while and they’re more expensive but worth every penny she loves hers its best thing I ever bought her) but as she’s getting older I’m looking for educational toys and books and things like that with decent representation! I keep finding great anatomy puzzles but they had 5 different white girls and not one girl of colour??!!! I’ve found a lot of kids books but they’re usually aimed at educating ~ probably white~ kids about different races which I have gotten her one of and also Ava Twist the Scientist (black girl scientist with supportive family 100% recommend) but I would love love love some suggestions with different topics. Like just kids books with poc characters.

Also, I want her to grow up seeing herself in characters in films etc. I’m white with naturally light blonde hair and blue eyes so growing up everything looked like me and I literally didn’t even realise that or how little poc representation there is. I cant believe how much disparity there is. I want her to have characters she loves and role models who she can see herself in. So far I’ve found Tip (from Disney’s Home) and my favourite Disney Princess Tiana, but I need to find some more. Cartoons, TV shows, films and comic books are all good. Anything illustrated. I just want to counter all the messages on TV with eurocentric beauty standards and all that shit. Especially because she might feel alone in our family because we’re mostly white or white passing. I need to build her up so when she encounters racism it won’t make her hate herself and I don’t know how yet but I will be trying for as long as I’m alive.

Also, she loves swimming and music and is so so smart (she can count to ten, knows the alphabet, all of her colours and a lot of shapes and animals (even like, camel and lizard) this girl is so clever) and she loves to draw so if you know of anything I should show her related to/based on that I would love to know!

This is a great opportunity for all trans women. Everybody has a chance!