A Turbo-Nerd

hi have a bubbly Black trans girl

this is Amy, another character in my book series. she's a happy-go-lucky girl who flies a plane and loves to fly. she loves to make friends and especially love to give hugs! she has a girlfriend, Kanta (pronouns they/them) who has the total opposite personality. maybe ill post them on here one day since i recently also made them Black lol

art commissioned by guyinthesky on bsky!

Yes, Asians Are Oppressed

It's shocking how eagerly people will make statements such as "Asians are basically white." Yet I can see why even another person of color might come to the conclusion. Relations between Asian Americans (or Asians of any society in the West) and other communities of color have always been strained. Black and Latino Americans are aware, and correctly, that many Asian American communities have a trait unique to communities of color: racial superiority. Native Americans are hardly acknowledged, if at all, by Asians. Most non-Asian communities of color experience systemic racial oppression far more severe and longer lasting than Asians in the West have endured.

But to see Asian communities solely from that perspective is antithetical to cross-racial solidarity for all people of color. In addition to the erasure of darker-skinned non-East Asians in this train of thought, and in addition to the fact that playing 'Oppression Olympics' has never benefited any categories of minorities, the fact remains that orientalism, or anti-Asian racism, cannot be a footnote in the history of American racism and white supremacy.

The predominant theme running through the history of Asian Americans from the very first arrivals-this is, obviously, 1830s to this day-is the Perpetual Foreigner Syndrome. This sense that we cannot possibly belong is exemplified by the internment of Japanese Americans, 120,000 individuals, two-thirds of them born in this nation and therefore citizens, that we could not be trusted, that blood will tell, that we truly would be actually loyal to the emperor of Japan or to some other sovereignty or that we could never assimilate, that we would not be Christian, could not speak English, could not truly join, did not understand democracy, were inscrutable, would not somehow wish for the same freedoms that others whose forbearers had come on the Mayflower wish for.

-- Frank H. Wu, UC Hastings College of the Law, 2016

Asian Americans, I would argue, are among the predominant cultures regarded as foreign, unknown outsiders. In a 2022 study, Asian Americans were the least likely to feel that they completely belong and are accepted in the United States (29%) compared to Black Americans (33%), Latino Americans (42%), and white Americans (61%). From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the 1922 Supreme Court decision that Asian Americans were not naturalized citizens because they were not Caucasian to the surge in anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic, the truth is that Yes. Asians are oppressed.

During World War II, 120,000 Japanese American citizens (citizens, not those on visa- citizens of this country) were uprooted and told to pack bags to internment camps for the simple crime of their ancestral origin, which alone certified their guilt in potentially being a spy. A portion of those interned (known as "Nisei" - second generation immigrant children) could not speak Japanese, and had never been to Japan. This was not done against German Americans, nor Italian Americans. They had to work unlike fellow white Americans to prove their nationality. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team composed of Japanese American Nisei remains the most decorated unit in American military history for their work in WWII Europe. But not Asia. Japanese American troops were not permitted to be sent to Asia.

Lead to the Model Minority

In 1966, a New York Times article by a white author thus lauded the hard work that prevented Japanese Americans from becoming a "problem minority". At the same time, the war on crime and criminalization of Black Americans was beginning. It was in this context that the "model minority" myth emerged, casting Asian Americans as hardworking and quiet, villainizing Black Americans. (It should be said that this does not justify the antiblackness in Asian American communities, only provides contextualization in a systemic lose-lose struggle between two communities fostered by whiteness, who continues to benefit in the end.)

Part of the reason API people avoid it is that they can see the way Blacks and Latinos are positioned… and they don’t want that, so they’ll do something different and hope for a different outcome… Those are the two big ones: a lot of pressure not to talk about it, and then a lot of pressure to disassociate from Blacks and Latinos.

-- Participant in a ChangeLab study about Asian Americans and race

Disclaimers.

Now that we're talking about #StopAsianHate, I see being both Black and Asian — the bridge between both of these communities and how similar they are. And sometimes I just get frustrated, because we're both not seeing each other's humanity and unifying as much as we should.

-- Johnathan Gibbs, Blasian activist

It is, however, crucial to remember that the 'model minority' stereotype in America very heavily focuses on East Asians, namely Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Americans. South and Southeast Asians, especially darker-skinned Asians, rarely feel a connect to the "model minority" stereotype. The demonization of dark skin and skin lightness hierarchy in Asia continues to reflect the effects of antiblackness even as an internalized system for Asians. Another notable element is mixed race Asian and Black American people (mixed race Asians of which many more lessons could be written on alone). As those who face both antiblackness and orientalism, their perspectives are especially important when considering cross-racial solidarity.

They're like, "Black Lives Matter and yes, this is happening to us too, but the root is white supremacy. But then you have this sector of the population... that are like, "Well, they don't understand that Black people have been going through this," and then they'll say, "Well, Asian people have gone through the Chinese Exclusion Act." But girl, slavery happened. Then you get into what everybody labels as the "oppression Olympics," and I don't do the oppression Olympics because there's no comparison. I say this as an Asian person, there is no comparison to what Black people have gone through in the United States of America since 1619.

-- Johnathan Gibbs

And the last disclaimer is that though I said we should not play 'Oppression Olympics', in a discussion like this it is vital to acknowledge that Black Americans have been facing significant amounts of systemic racism, and it is not reducing American orientalism to a footnote to say that.

So What's the Solution? Yuri Kochiyama, Malcolm X, and Cross-Racial Solidarity

Yet despite this shared struggle, divergent goals and interests “sets our two communities apart and pits us against each other. […] Racialized disinformation […] sustains white supremacy. It can also be weaponized to disrupt cross-racial solidarity among different communities and ultimately uphold the tenets of white supremacy power structures.

-- Phan, a research analyst with the Asian American Disinformation Table.

But I have spent all this time talking about how these communities are different, oppressed differently, put differently against each other, all while focusing on differences is still not the solution. 

Black-Asian solidarity is not new: Frederick Douglass argued against the Chinese Exclusion Act, political activist Yuri Kochiyama was an ally and friend of Malcolm X, and Jesse Jackson stepped away from his presidential campaign in 1992 to protest the murder of Vincent Chin. Japanese Americans’ push for reparations for internment during World War II was modeled on the civil rights movement of the 60s and 70s.

-- Joseph Williams, The Long History of Black-Asian Solidarity, 2023

Japanese American human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama was the one by Malcom X's side cradling his head in her lap after he’d been fatally shot at Audubon Ballroom. She had directly contributed to the passing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which guaranteed reparations for former internees of the Japanese American camps (including herself). But the majority of Kochiyama’s influence today stems from her work in cross-racial solidarity through grassroots activism.

She helped connect Asian American activism to the larger Civil Rights movement, and formed unity between diverse communities. Based in Harlem at the height of the movement, she worked directly alongside Black and Latino communities, and through her work, Kochiyama demonstrated to all that the fight for justice does not define those by their differences, but by their willingness to stand together.

The same exact playbook is being used against both Black and Asian communities. So if we don’t stick together, the playbook that wins against one of our communities will absolutely win against the other.

Birth of a Fashion Icon

This is not what Orpheus and Eurydice dressed him in when he went to school for 2nd grade picture day. Kairos decided it was time to take his OWN image into his OWN hands!!

Standing a couple spots behind in line, Philia cheers him on.

Reference of his parents and the actual (hilarious!) picture, underneath

Help our story take flight and back FLY on Kickstarter Today!

The Three Tomes: An Indie Animatic Pilot : Currently on Youtube and Indie Series in the works. Created by @breanimator ( Bre Navickas).

Kickstarter for episode 2: JUNE 19th

Tammy Harris was just an ordinary 17 year old girl. Then one night while making a short horror film with her best friend Sia, she gains the powers of a witch from an ancient tome with spirits inside. Will Tammy and Sia’s friendship survive this supernatural summer, and will Tammy's romantic endeavors with two vampires be more than she can handle?

To learn more check out my master post and follow the pre launch page on Twitter.

A Queer YA coming of age romantasy. A bi Teen Witch Girl x Pan Vampire x Bi Vampire , Lesbian Witch x NB / Bi human , Gay Vampire Villain x Gay Vampire Priest ... A spectrum of black queer identity and a whimsical Adventure fighting monsters and a return to action adventure cartoons of the early 2000s.

Step into the world if The Three Tomes

Do you like gay art by gay people? Do you like tarot decks?

STAR CROSSED: a queer tarot - now available in our store!

At any point this world might decide that they should be murdered for the audacity to be alive and Black; I want them to cheer and clap and dance and sing and blast music as LOUD as they can because they are here too and they have every right to be! Take YOUR miserable ass on somewhere instead, and consider why happy Black children bother you so much. Maybe consider that YOU might be the threat! You want to fight somebody, pick on somebody your own size!"

Over 500 years spent trying to cut down a whole trunk of human culture.

Some new outfits for Emerald I wanted to share on here!

The costume in “Lady Swan’s Last Dance” was designed by @stephanos-spaceopera. I just followed her design notes and thorough color palette sheet for reference.

Here’s a link to my post and Emerald’s fashion board for anyone interested to see more:

https://www.tumblr.com/afrophunk/819143716248928256/emerald-fashion-board

Shameless plug: you can find my donation links in my Linktree. A girl is poor.

Here in Gaza, life in all its forms has come to a halt because of the war😔.

living here has become extremely difficult due to the high and rising prices.

It has become hard to provide the basic necessities we need, like food and drink.

The cost of living for one day exceeds $100.

Please help me, even if just a little.