softcommunication-blog reblogged
Faye Hunter, of Let’s Active, 1954-2013 | MORE
softcommunication-blog reblogged
Anita O'Day
softcommunication-blog reblogged
sincerely-dean-deactivated20170
My brother is a tall, skinny, black kid with an athletic build who frequently wears a hoodie, often with his ear buds in. Sometimes he does this in a beautiful cul-de-sac community where he does not live, but my relatives in Delaware do, where all the houses look the same and there are only a few streets. All the backyards connect without fencing, and sometimes he’ll go for a walk down the street, or through the grass, sometimes at night, oblivious to who may be seeing him, wondering what he’s up to, while he’s ignorantly and blissfully listening to A$AP Rocky.
He is Trayvon Martin.
And as I’ve read and watched and discussed this case to anyone foolish enough to get me started on the topic, and although I, like many people, have occasionally been frustrated by the ways in which the media has characterized this case (George Zimmerman’s race, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), the witnesses (like Rachel Jeantel, who has been beaten up on by not only the conservative media, but also the black community, the Twitter citizenry, and the defense and prosecution lawyers, even when they’ve tried to show her deference), the importance of the verdict (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant) and the potential of race riots after it is delivered (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), I am almost embarrassed to admit how amazingly personal this case is to me as black man who will someday have black children.
That is because my brother is Trayvon Martin, and my future children are Trayvon Martin.
The indisputable facts of this case: George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator with a license to carry a concealed weapon, was accustomed to being on red alert after a series of burglaries by young black males who plagued his gated community. On the rainy evening of February 26, 2012, Zimmerman saw a potential perp — a young black male with ahoodie who was talking through his ear buds to a friend on the phone — and Zimmerman called the police as he had done half a dozen times before in the weeks before the incident.
Instead of remaining in his car, he got out and followed the teenager, even though police told him that an officer was on the way and they didn’t “need” him to do that. The teenager continued to travel away from Zimmerman, who continued after him. Eventually there was a confrontation, a fight, and the teenager, Trayvon Martin, was shot by a single bullet through his heart. Zimmerman has maintained that Martin was beating him up violently against the concrete, and that the killing was in self-defense.
And, believe it or not, the fact that Zimmerman can even claim self-defense, or the fact that anyone, regardless of race, can claim self-defense in a situation even tangentially resembling this one, is the mostdisturbing and terrifying aspect to me.
Defenders of George Zimmerman say, he had a reasonable reason to identify and suspect Trayvon Martin considering the recent burglaries. Getting out of his car wasn’t illegal, nor was ignoring the suggestion of the police dispatcher! Certainly nothing is wrong with asking someone, “What are you doing around here?,” and if, at any given moment, he had a reasonable fear for his life, then he had a legal right and responsibility to protect himself.
I have walked into restaurants and rest stop bathrooms where I have instantly been aware of my blackness, only because everyone else around me is. I have walked into places where people have literally whispered and pointed, without even the slightest bit of shame or covertness, to their companions at me, the lone black person in the establishment. I have had relationships dissolve because of parents who were “concerned” about what people might say about the black guy.
Me. The Old Navy cargo shorts and silly t-shirt rocking, flip-flops all day, every day, during the summer wearing, me. On the Cosby scale, I’m about six shades darker than Lisa Bonet and six shades lighter than Malcolm Jamal Warner. I’m Mr. I-wrote-a-book-on-Pee-wee-Herman-and-frequently-listen-to-the-Spice-Girls-and-the-only-hoodies-I-own-advertise-either-the-college-I-attended-or-the-musical-theater-show-I’m-directing-at-my-full-time-job.
But, you see, I’m Trayvon Martin. And if you’re a black male, regardless of your age, your height, your weight, how dark your skin is, what you’re wearing, and what you’re listening to on the device in your pocket, someone somewhere is seeing you as Trayvon Martin.
Even if you’re carrying a package of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea, just trying to continue your phone call and get to your father’s house to watch the NBA All-Star game with your little half-brother, you are Trayvon Martin.
And nice people who know me personally, hopefully, will shake their heads in confusion at this and will say, “Well, that isn’t fair! If they only knew you, no one would ever be afraid of you.” And, of course, that’s the point and the problem. Because if I can cause someone to feel nervous, concerned, or uncomfortable while they’re eating in a restaurant, then it doesn’t require a leap of faith to understand why George Zimmerman assumed that the teenager walking around his neighborhood was a threat.
But what I think is equally disturbing is that I canunderstand, and by extension, at least to some extent, accept the decision of George Zimmerman to notice Trayvon Martin and make that 911 call in the first place.
When I walk into a convenience store late at night, especially if I’m the only person there besides the employee, I’m amazingly aware of how my presence might make him or her feel uncomfortable. I consciously try to smile and look pleasant. Sometimes I even go so far as to have my debit card in my hand before I reach the counter so I don’t have to reach in my pocket and run the risk of causing any alarms – literal or figurative. When stopped by a cop (which, especially when I was a teenager, would happen all the time), I sat patiently with my hands on the wheel, and gave clear and non-threatening verbal warnings before I made any movements.
“My registration is in my glove compartment,” I’d say. “I’m going to take off my seat belt, open my glove compartment, and go get it for you, sir.”
One time on the New Jersey Turnpike, as I was driving back to college, a state trooper stopped me for speeding. After I gave the verbal warning and got the okay, I reached into my glove compartment.
“Rolling papers?” he asked.
“What?”
“Are those rolling papers?” There were about five super-flat packets of Stride gum in the back of my glove compartment.
I said they were packets of gum, and after I pulled them out and put them in the trooper’s hand, which he inspected with his partner as if the two of them had never seen a pack of gum before, I was let off with a warning and sent on my way.
And as I drove away, I took those packets of gum and threw them in my book bag. How stupid, I immediately thought, for keeping them inthere. I should have known they looked like rolling papers.
It wasn’t until I got back to my dorm room that I was amazed that in that encounter, I somehow felt guilty, like I had done something wrong for having gum in my car. There are people who will argue that if only Trayvon Martin had declined to hit George Zimmerman after he was a) hit first, or b) approached, or c) followed, depending on which version of the story you believe, or if Trayvon hadn’t been wearing that hoodie, despite the adverse weather conditions, he’d still be alive. Sure, he wasn’t guilty of anything really, but he could have made life easier for himself by maybe not acting or looking so, I don’t know, bla—intimidating?
This is a significant part of the underlying concern a lot of people, particularly black people, have with this case. It isn’t enough that Trayvon Martin was killed with nothing more than a cell phone, a photo button, a bottle of Arizona iced tea, and a package of Skittles on him, but then insult is added to injury when it’s insinuated that he somehow, inherently, deserved it for walking-while-black in a gated community that happened to have previously been plagued by black criminals. Somehow, for a lot of people, it wasn’t George Zimmerman’s fault that Trayvon ended up killed because, as we “all know,” Trayvon was sort of asking for it.
You put on a hoodie and you know what baggage comes with that, right?
This case will, frighteningly, come down to whether or notthe six jurors believe that George Zimmerman was justified in his fear. Another way of asking that is, of course, whether or not those six jurors, if placed in the same situation, could imagine themselves reasonably drawing and acting upon those same assumptions.
Is it impossible to imagine that? Of course not. But that’s precisely the problem.
Because as I think about what certainly occurred that evening, and what likely did, even if I give every single concession to George Zimmerman’s contested version of events (ie: Trayvon hit him first, Trayvon pushed Zimmerman to the ground, Trayvon beat him up, Trayvon saw the gun –- which is amazingly unlikely in the blackness of the night with the weapon concealed, but let’s just say that happened), I can’t help but think to myself:
Good. Good for you, Trayvon Martin, for doing what I would hope to God my brother would do if he was walking down the street with a package of Skittles and was followed and confronted by a man with a decade of life and 70 pounds over him.
Because what people don’t understand about this unfortunate situation is that I feel some degree of fear when I’m doing nothing wrong, like in the restaurant, rest stop, and convenience store, and my very presence causes someone to feel afraid.
And if you aren’t safe with a package of Skittles, walking around your family’s cul-de-sac in Delaware, wearing your Old Navy flip-flops,then when are you ever safe? If you find yourself approached by some stranger, why can’t you run from them without it being assumed that you’re fleeing the scene of some crime you’re destined to commit? If you’re a teenager and confronted by an adult you perceive to be creepy, why can’t you fight for your life? Stand your ground? And why, if you get killed after all of that, would people say it must have been your fault?
A lot of people don’t understand that. They think black people see race in everything and Al Sharpton should have just minded his business. Trayvon Martin was a hood and George Zimmerman did what any responsible person would have done. Justice was already served, they say, and a verdict finding Zimmerman guilty of anything would some sort of de facto reparations –- an example of white guilt and a bone thrown to the civil rights movement.
And that’s only because they haven’t walked a mile from a 7-11 back home in Trayvon Martin’s shoes, like so many other people have.
As University of Connecticut professor and New Yorker columnist Jelani Cobb wrote, “We live in an era in which the protocol for addressing even the most severely bigoted behavior very often includes a conditional apology to the offender—a declaration that he has made a terrible error, but is, of course, in no way racist—and, eventually, an outpouring of support for the fallible transgressor, victim of the media and the ‘race-hustlers.’ We grade racism on the severest of curves, and virtually no one qualifies.”
That’s true, which is why I think questions of George Zimmerman’s racial views are irrelevant. Labeling anyone a racist is a feudal argument, especially since it amounts to nothing. I have never seen someone effectively convinced that a person is a racist. It’s a judgment that’s impossible to be talked into or out of.
But I offer this. Just a few hours ago, Zimmerman’s defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who I believe has genuinely been a relatively reasonable person throughout this trial, took to CNN to give his first interview after the two sides rested their cases. He was asked by the anchor what he thinks George Zimmerman’s life will be like if he’s acquitted.
O’Mara, with a stone face and look of genuine disappointment in the truth embedded in his answer, said that Zimmerman will never be safe. He’ll always live his life in fear. He will never know when a “crazy person” (his words) will kill him.
“Everyone knows what George Zimmerman looks like,” O’Mara said. “He doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like.”
And this was said without even the slightest hint of irony. The irony jumped out of my television, into my living room, pointed at me, and laughed in my face. And I called it “sir,” and I apologized for even noticing it in the first place. And it shot me in my heart and made me come to my computer and confess the truth that I’ve met George Zimmerman.
Zimmerman doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like, but everyone knows what he looks like?
Which is fundamentally different than George Zimmerman knowing what “they” – those many, many Trayvon Martins out there – look like.
Caseen Gaines
(Author, Hackensack High School Teacher, Rutgers Alumni, Rutgers Professor)
You can find the original post here
(via sincerely-dean)
softcommunication-blog reblogged
Just had a conversation about this over the weekend.
hbo-oz-blog
thevelvetedge
Trouble brewing. Homoerotic, sexy trouble.
Casey and I are deep into season three of Oz, and these two assholes are among my favorites. Adabeesi is at the top of that list, though.
gravyholocaustsucks
I just thought to myself if Oz was on now there would be a tumblr devoted to Adebisi’s hat. OF COURSE THERE ALREADY IS ONE
Ice cream just came outta my nose for REAL.
jamijett
I’ve never seen Oz but I have heard that number 4 on my list, Chris Meloni, shows his junk a million times so I should get down to business. (PS: I don’t hate that Liz Lemon boyfriend, Mayhem Guy from Law and Order either.)
debbiecountry
A few years ago I watched every single episode of every season in order, mostly alone and at night, which made me feel insane for two months. I was having anxiety nightmares about doing something bad that would land me in prison and have to face Schillinger.
Then a few months later, I went to L.A. and actually saw the actor who played him (which yes, I know he’s Juno’s dad and the Farmer’s Insurance guy now) leaving Doughboys and I totally freaked out.
I’m glad I watched all of Oz because now it feels like some Amazing Race challenge I completed and my life feels slightly better for it. And for the record, Alvarez was my favorite and I would definitely hang out with the Latinos and not the Italians as is my pedigree. The end.
One day, not today, but one day, I will discuss my total and complete love of OZ, prison soap opera extraordinaire and mecca of male full frontal nudity. If you only know Christopher Meloni through sick day marathon viewings of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, you don't know Meloni, s'all I'm saying.
David Bowie?
Love: Basquiat - I don't actually love any movies Bowie is in, weirdly enough. I admire this one though, despite my issues with it (Schnabel's need to insert himself into the narrative via Gary Oldman and the tastefully ignorant/naive ideas about race). Giving natural performances is not really Bowie's thing. There's an intentional theatrical artificiality to his acting that can either work very strongly for or against the material. A few actors have taken on Andy Warhol and Bowie's version, all loose jawed accent, head twitches, nervous face-touching and crossed leg standing, is jarring at first. Like a loose collection of tics put together to represent a person. After repeated viewings, I started to see more in it. There is something small and sweet about Bowie's Warhol that isn't really there in other films. The emphasis is usually on the remoteness, the blankness, the bitchiness. His take made me think of that Lou Reed lyric in Songs for Drella, "give people little presents so they remember me." That person, that facet.
Like - The Prestige: This is a brief but cool as ice cameo. Bowie's Tesla is restrained and almost funereal, but his presence is everything. It has more charisma than any of the other dudes running around doing magic tricks and acting like crazy people (this is a movie I like, by the way). Nolan was right to cast him. The choice says everybody else in this story is just an actor. Tesla is a rock star.
Hate - The Linguini Incident: Usually, I will watch any old piece of crap until the bitter end because a) I am lazy and b) I get a weird, squiggly sort of pleasure out of bad art. I couldn't get through this one though. Oof. Painful.
softcommunication-blog reblogged
Put an actor or actress in my ASK BOX
And I will give you one movie I love with them in it, one movie I like with them in it, and one movie that I dislike with them in it. (Kallen did this on Facebook and I got Freddie Prinze Jr. which was v. difficult.)
nickminichino
Try it or reblog.
I'm still deep in the throes of writing anxiety (basically I should be working on a certain project, which makes me feel guilty about writing anything else, so I don't, but I don't work on the project either? Or anything? Surely I'm not alone in this type of idiocy? HELP ME.)
Anyway, this sounds nice and relaxing. Also, I was talking about Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner with someone this morning on the train and they said, Who can even name a movie that Rutger Hauer was in besides Blade Runner? HA!
softcommunication-blog reblogged
OMG OMG OMG!
aka watch this, now
I'm sorry I've been out of touch. Lots going on. Babies learning to roll over. Older children telling me they're going to be John Lennon and I can be their Yoko. Moving plans and good friends getting married and work reviews and students fainting and or being stalked. It's been an eventful couple of months. More details once I can get my head together.
(Hendrik, I still owe you that ask. I need to rewatch the movie in question. It doesn't seem fair to give you the short answer when it doesn't even exist in my head.)
This is Bryan's recommendation and I liked it. Matches the internal landscape.
softcommunication-blog reblogged
“How do I tell a story when I haven’t yet lived the end? When I may have lived the better part of the story already, or when I may not even be one-quarter through? And when, either way, whenever the end does come, it will render untellable everything that came before?”
Very grateful and unexpectedly terrified to have this gnarly thing out in the world today.
My son, then three, and I were wandering around Brooklyn's Green-wood Cemetery (not that weird, it's a beautiful place, also, parrots!) and he started pointing at the graves and saying bones bones bones bones bones with a big smile on his face. I dread the moment, and it's coming soon, when he asks me about death and I'll want to lie.
On a related note, this piece is excellent.
Demonstrating the finest in fashion forward late 70s Chilean bathing suits
softcommunication-blog reblogged
blessedisthememory-deactivated2
I’m currently reading Read and Burn: A Book About Wire, by Wilson Neate, an entertaining and very comprehensive history of the band’s work. As Wire are not a particularly press-friendly group, much of this story is new to me (I had no idea that much of the band’s existence was a power struggle between Colin Newman and Bruce Gilbert, until the latter left Wire in 2004). Map Ref is a beautiful song, an ode to travel that musically reflects the experience as good as any song on the subject I’ve heard (the title is a map coordinate - where, I have no idea). That chorus, in particular, is sublime. According to Neate, it was written and delivered to EMI Records as the “pop hit” as the label wanted a return on their investment with Wire’s third LP (154) in 1979. Only in an alternate reality, as it turns out. The writer demonstrates that Wire were often their own worst enemy at finding lasting commercial success and a profile higher than cult status. In spite of that, this song is Wire at their most melodic and beautiful. Those are two adjectives not often applied to a group as committed to experimentation and conceptual art as Wire, but they should be (Neate also reveals that beyond the band’s pale public image, privately they know how to enjoy themselves and have great senses of humor). My Bloody Valentine also recorded an equally wonderful version of the song (their last recording before going silent for 22 years).
Because I am a dork, one of the first things I did when I discovered Google maps was to enter these coordinates. The fact that I don’t remember where it led (somewhere over the USA?) supports my notion that the song is not about the destination so much as what you are thinking about when you travel— the green bits in an outdated map that could be anywhere and nowhere at all, the view from your airplane window, those multi-hued rectangles and lines, remembering.
Source: Spotify
i've started thinking of nick miller as a turtle-face archetype. currently exploring whether jon snow is an example of such.
(endless laughter because of mental image of Jon Snow's turtle-face)
If only he were funnier, Minichino, IF ONLY HE WERE FUNNIER.
Ugh, now you're going to have me compiling a mental list of Turtle Faces through out entertainment history. There goes my Monday.
softcommunication-blog reblogged
Katie Coyle: Hello, Tess! Very excited to be discussing this television show and my FEELINGS with you. First of all: how long have you been a roomfriend?
Tess McGeer: Woo, okay! So, I’ve been watching New Girl from the beginning—I’ve always...
Excellent conversation about New Girl and why you should watch. Though, like the authors, I too find it very hard to not say "AND ALSO NICK MILLER, NICK MILLER, NICK MILLER" like a twitchy maniac.
Bradley Beach, NJ (sooo cold but I just had to walk in)
What do they make dreams for?
“Blurred Lines” is a calling card. The man of “When I Get You Alone” is long overdue for a new signature jam. Robin Thicke’s heavy lidded lover boy schtick has aged into something that’s a little bit sleazy and off-putting and somehow that’s okay? Because it’s self aware and therefore, a little bit funny? Unlike J-Timbs, who always seems about to crack into an ingratiating Disney smile no matter what smooth move he’s pulling, Thicke appears legitimately disreputable and that is part of his slow wink charm. He is the seducer that you are just a little bit embarrassed to fall for, since his presentation is so overt. How could you, a smart individual, fall for this Continental-type shit? Why is he pronouncing his Ts like that? Why am I smiling back? When did the dancing start? What is happening?
So what makes a good girl? Or a nice guy? The idea that not everyone wears their sex drive on their sleeve? That you can be classy in the streets, freaky in the sheets? Yeaaaah…and? Luckily, Thicke knows he’s not breaking any new ground on the subject (or musically— though reanimated Marvin Gayeisms are always welcome), which is why he becomes less and less interested in it until he’s just offering you weed and patting the seat next to him with a goofy grin. This is Friday evening before the party, so relax. Get loose.
(Despite my initial lukewarm reaction, this has become a major ear worm. I want to do a get-ready-to-go-out dance to it. Apply some expensive, tasty lipstick, fit into dresses from my early 20s, trill my fingers to the maybe I’m going out of my ma-a-a-a-a-a-i-n-n-n-d, and shout YOU DA HOTTEST BITCH IN THIS PLACE! Do over-the-shoulder Pat Cleveland-style camera poses to the flat-voiced I feel so lucky/you wanna hug me/what rhymes with hug me? bit. The track is infectious because it is repetitive in just the right way, the simple little bass line constantly picks you up and brings you right back to the beginning. Game over? Nah. Press START. Again and again until you’re great at it.)
PS Forget about the video, I ain’t even linking that nonsense.
Source: SoundCloud / maurice-bell
softcommunication-blog reblogged
dyinggod
Describe yourself in 3 television characters...
Hank Hill, Tina Belcher, Larry David.
doyourwardance
Louise Belcher, Elaine Benes, Brenda Walsh
Gene Belcher, Artie the producer, Laura the receptionist.
Leslie Knope, Lou Grant, Walter and Perry
Bob Belcher, Larry David, Lucy Ricardo
lewbasnight
Lurch, Grady Wilson, Reverend Jim
Jan Brady, Liz Lemon, and Lisa Simpson
debbiecountry
Alf, Lindsay Weir, Nana Mary from Roseanne
Khadijah, Brian Krakow, Roz the bailiff
Curtis, Lucy Ricardo, Nick Miller (honorable mention: Dis Bad Bitch)
softcommunication-blog reblogged
